Resolutions!

Are you all excited for the new year?
I am!   I usually don't care, but now that I'm finally accomplishing some goals, I'm a little fired up!

So this year, I think I'll actually do some New Year's resolutions.  Last year, I just wanted to be able to learn basic care, finding out what's good on my hair and skin, learning how to style and put on makeup, things that girls have been learning since high school, lol.

Anyway, since I got to accomplish those goals, maybe I can do more resolutions and fulfill them too!

Birthday!

Happy birthday to me~!

Like my new ring?
But this comes later.

Holiday Aftermath

Hello!
How were your holidays? Did you get something nice? Did you get to be with someone you liked? Did you go somewhere and enjoy yourself?

I had a great Christmas.
I got to be with my family, and I saw my cousin's new baby~
My family loved their gifts, especially Nia. She came in with a hat, but the moment she saw mine, she put it on immediately, and it turns out her favorite color is purple, so the necklace was just right. She was showing it off to everyone! She's turning into a little fashionista~!
The food was quite delicious, and my candies were a hit~ Everyone had a good time with lots of laughter. I love getting together with my whole family.

In the end, I walked away with $290, a gas card, and a bag of fabric and pink sewing notions with a sewing technique book.

Of course, the very next day, I deposited my money and went online shopping~ (since it was actually Christmas at the time)
So, what did I get?

Happy Christmas Eve.... Eve!

As I said before, I celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, so tomorrow is the day~

It actually sneaked up on me.  Yes, even though I posted about it not long ago, I still didn't see it coming.
I was watching Phelous' review of some horror movie called Black Christmas (2006)  I started thinking about how Christmas was on a Saturday, then suddenly it came to me.


Christmas Eve is Friday then!

That's when I realized how close Christmas had gotten.  I swear, last time I checked, it was so many days away!  The time just flew~


I won't get to wrap my presents, since I couldn't afford boxes, bags, or really anything after purchasing gifts, so they'll just stay in the tissue that they gave me when I bought them, lol. I'm excited to be able to give out gifts this year. Usually, I only get something for my cousin, and I get lumped in with my mom's gift to my grandma and Poppy. This year, Poppy made me promise not to get him anything but a card, but at least I got to give grandma her own gift. I still got to help mom with her own gift for grandma though, since I'm the inside girl ^^

Well, grandma has been eating a lot of ice cream lately, so I suggested an ice cream maker. I thought it would be nice to get her one so she could always have a supply and she could make her own healthy concoctions with all of her herbs and whatnot.  Plus, I could make my own flavors too~  Don't know what Mom decided on though, since I also suggested a new dish drying rack, with the one we have being from the 60's and probably not having been properly washed since back then either....


So anyway, Christmas comes tomorrow my way! I'm going to be making the candy tonight (apparently everyone is really looking forward to it!). I'm also trying to finalize what I want to purchase if I get any money for Christmas. Hoping for enough to at least buy the BB cream, one pair of contacts, the shoes from Yumetenbo, and a particular book on confectioneries, maybe a few flavored powders from Faerie's Finest. The book is the replaceable one, since that book will always be available.

I still have gifts to get my 4 friends: a gift certificate to Sock Dreams for Tara (she loves socks, seriously), a Hello Kitty/Gloomy Bear combo keychain for Niki (to combine her love of HK with her newfound love of Gloomy), something Loveless related for Steve (he's too picky!), and a package of goodies for my overseas sweetheart Chloe. I think I can get most of these next week.  Money management, AWAY~

Oh, but a bit of an update on the Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition shampoo, my flakes seem to have almost completely disappeared. Normally, they would be all over my hair even while my hair was just air drying. I've been checking my scalp for the past two days, and I haven't seen anything! I even scratched my head to see if it was just hiding, but sure enough, nothing came up! I think anything I have left is just the remnants of what I had before. I can't actually see any issue on the scalp itself. In fact, my scalp looks absolutely shiny, lol.

Also, I notice my hair doesn't get statically charged like it used to. I put on my coat earlier today, and usually afterwards, my hair is sticking straight up. This time, while it still got charged (I don't think it ever wouldn't) it stayed down more. I think it's great against flyaways.

I'm definitely switching conditioners as well. At $3 for the bottle, $1 less than Herbal Essence, and WAAAAAAAAAY better on my scalp than it, it's a great investment.
Herbal Essence, you had your chance! Now you are dead to me!

Enjoy your holidays, everyone!

Reviews? I guess so!

So, I tried out my new shampoo.
I like it so far! One thing I noticed that was really different was the lack of itching. Both Suave and Herbal Essence irritate my scalp. I stopped using Suave because while it made my hair very shiny, it caused way too many fly-aways (when your hair is so dry it becomes statically charged). I went to Herbal Essence after that (Hello Hydration shampoo and Long Term Relationship conditioner), and while it hydrated my hair a ton and got rid of frizziness and fly-aways, it made my scalp itchy and caused a lot of dandruff....

Random Musings

Did you notice anything different?
I just made a new Favorites icon~

If you want one your blog too, go here for instructions, and at the part where it says to replace with your link, use the Direct Link one. It was pretty easy, just opened one of the GIFs I've collected in Paint, saved as a PNG, uploaded it to ImageShack, and followed the directions!

Also, are you a complete newbie to makeup like me?  Or maybe you're a makeup junkie always looking for the next thing?

A few days ago, I came across this blog while looking for swatches for BB Creams. She's super informative, and has tons of reviews on makeups and skin care products. If you only care about BB Creams though, she's got a section just for that.

http://lotuspalace.blogspot.com/


No, I don't get anything for mentioning her blog. I'm only doing this because I really like it!

Anyway, Christmas seems to be just around the corner now.   I have to be honest, I actually didn't realize how close it was, as excited as I was for it. And, it's now a week from my birthday too.   It was so weird! The only reason I actually checked today was because my grandma asked me what I wanted for Christmas this morning, lol. I simply told her money, since I love being in control of what I get. I am the easiest person to shop for, next to my grandpa who's much like me and prefers to handle things by himself, and as such made me promise to only get him a card.

So I guess those cookbook stuff is for her? She opened one of the boxes, and it was nothing but Bobby Flay DVDs. So it looks like my Christmas wish will come true, lol.


My Grandma asked me to make more of those butter candies for the party. Since they're only 3 ingredients and it takes like 30 minutes to make, I figured why not. It's potluck too, so I'll probably have to make lots. I'm excited to give everyone their presents~!


I'm pretty excited though. This morning, I had a dream about owning a whole Hime ensemble, from hair to coat to shoes. Hopefully I get enough money to get it!

I just bought a new shampoo and will be using it tomorrow. It's Garnier's Triple Nutrition. It's got lots of hydrating ingredients which I hope will help my poor hair a lot (as my hair is naturally curly, I not only need help during the winter when it's really dry, but during the summer when it's humid too). I guess I'll let everyone know if it came out alright!  At $3, I don't think I can go that wrong.

Christmas Shopping at Charming Charlie!

I've been bad

Icons!

I've got a brand new site for all of you icon lovers to go to~!
http://www.lovecandied.com/

It's in Japanese, so here's where you go to get to the icons.
At the top, click on the word "Item"
It'll be in Japanese, but up at the top, it'll say "for English information, click here." Click on the 'here'.
Read the rules if you like, then scroll down. You'll see the words "Click to proceed." and a picture of a girl. Click on her.

And there you go! Click on any text in the left hand column to get started and get to collecting~ If you're in the Background section, you can actually click on the images to see what it would look like as a background, and click on the stars above to see what it would look like mixed together!

Be sure you check out this person's affiliates too. There's so many pretty icons between them all~!


If you don't know how to use these icons, this post should explain everything you need to know.

Am I the only one who hates rain?

I feel like I am, because all of my friends love it. I don't mind looking at it, and the scent of it is wonderful, but to be in it, I don't like it at all.

It makes my hair all frizzy, and my clothes cling, driving in it is terrible, and sometimes it's so loud that I can't keep my windows open like I like to. If every time I was outside, it didn't rain, that would be great.

Although I do love my umbrella. It's big and cute, and it protects me from most of the downpour. But usually, I'm caught outside without it....

I'll check the weather, and it'll say it's only to be cloudy. Of course, I step outside and head to my destination, and it starts pouring, with only a sweatjacket to save me, and sometimes not even that.

And every time I take my umbrella with me, it's nothing but clear, sunny skies. It's not opaque, so I can't even use it to block the sun.


But what makes this rain worse is that it's a temporary temperature. At night, the temp will drop, and all of that rain will freeze, over our cars, over our streets, over our sidewalks and porches. Then the rain itself will freeze, and cover everything with a layer of snow!

I can only hope that the temperature picks up again and melts it away before I have to go out and do something.


Don't count on it. It's only going to get colder for the next few days....


Oh winter, I wouldn't dislike you if you could manage yourself properly. Be more like spring; you can keep all the water, but less of that ice trying to injure and kill us all. We've got places we can go to if we desire all of that, thank you.

Christmas is now 9 days away~  We celebrate on the 24th, however, so I have even less of a wait.
I love Christmas time. Yeah, it's full of that dreadful snow, but the way the lights twinkle under them is so magical~

I'm really tempted to spend some cash on myself.... I'm trying not to. I've already got my family taken care of, so the money I have left would just be spare. But I shouldn't. I should really keep this money for if I need it!

Fortunately, whenever I start looking at items to buy, I see their price and think, that's so much.... I've said that even for $5 things! I think my Capricorn miserly ways are finally coming out. Mixed blessing, really....