I be shoppin!

Hello, I'm back from my lovely calorie filled Thanksgiving break and in need of some exercise and craft time. I pretty much ate and visited with loved one's the entire break .... oh yeah, and I shopped.....

for a long time.

Ferris Wheel at the Irvine Spectrum Mall

Every year, around Christmas time, myself along with my mom, aunt, cousin, and sister, get together and try to boost the economy at a local mall of our choice. This year we chose The Irvine Spectrum as our charitable cause. Seriously, we like to get together at a place that feels festive and The Spectrum was just the place to provoke such a feeling. I'm sure that if we lived somewhere that has snow, we would be content with a simple stroll in the snow and we wouldn't have to go to such a tempting place like The Spectrum. Really, I'm just a victim of no snow syndrome, or at least that's what I tell my husband.

One of the things I like to do when on my once a year no kids shopping trip is visit the department store make-up counter. Ironically, due to the unfortunate state of our sagging economy, this year was the best year to visit the make-up counter, because there wasn't anybody at the counter. It was just me and the make-up rep, but I like to think of her as a make-up artist, because I don't get out much. So, I sat down in the chair and told her I was in a make-up rut and needed help. Rachel, the make-up artist (I still have her card), felt sorry for me and treated me to a total make over. One super cool trick she taught me was to put eye liner under my upper eye lid. This gives the illusion of thicker eye lashes and "pops" the eye. Also, she told me to use a color one shade darker than my eye color. She used Espresso Ink Gel Eyeliner by Bobby Brown. (Just in case your wondering... no, that's not Bobby Brown the singer as in Every Little Step I Take (love that song!), it's Bobby Brown the make up artist.) I recommend doing this before you apply mascara, because you may poke yourself in the eye a couple of times, which then makes you blink, and before you know it mascara is all over your bottom lid. Nope, never done it ;)

I do have to tell you that the next morning, when I tried to recreate what Rachel did, I was a little heavy handed to say the least. My daughter said "Wow, you look like one of my fashion girls." Her fashion girls are a series of drawings she made of runway models. Here's two of them....

I have since lightened up on the eye shadow =) As for the drawings, notice the birds perched at the tips of the veil in the first drawing. She may be on to something there. If you happen to see birds perched at the end of veils in next seasons fashion shows, remember that you saw it here first!

Now that my break is over, I am anxious to get to sewing. I have aprons to sew and a couple Christmas crafts to make.

Happy to be back!

Jamie