I'm a Blog Giveaway Winner!

This is a few days late, but along with some of the other things I've been winning lately, one that I am super excited about is Beauty by Krystal's Krystal's BIG Thank You Giveaway! I was searching for information about a new makeup company I had discovered, e.l.f. (which I have posted about before), and found her videos. They're extremely helpful for someone like me who had never ordered anything from them before to see what the products actually look like and to get her opinion on them. So I decided to enter her giveaway. Well, I won first prize!!! I'm so, so, so excited to receive this.

1st PRIZE INCLUDES (items asterisked were received from PR):

ELF 141 Piece Master Makeup Collection

ELF Blooming Eyeshadow Collection

ELF Brightening Eye Color in Drama

ELF Nail Polish in Clear

China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Sexy Silhouette

*Peacekeeper Cause-Metics "Perfect As Is" Lip Balm in Tinted Rose

*Peacekeeper Cause-Metics Eco-Sheer Lip Gloss in Stillness

*CND The Look - Perfectly Bare Nail Polish duo pack

*CND Scentsations Hand & Body Lotion in Mango & Coconut

*CND Scentsations Hand & Body Wash in Mango & Coconut

*Cricket Technique Thermal #390 2" Tourmaline Ionic Brush

iViScents iSmell Soap in Sandcastle

iViScents Towel Treat in Chocolate Cupcake

ULTA 4 Piece Lip Glossary Set

ULTA Anti-Bacterial Hand Lotion in Pomegranate

ULTA Anti-Bacterial Hand Soap in Pomegranate

Cherry Culture Lip Balm in Bubble Gum

Kitten & Vixen Liner Pencil Sharpener

VALUE: $180

I haven't tried any of these products aside from the clear e.l.f. nail polish, so I'm so excited to get a chance to try out new things. Thank you so much for hosting the giveaway Krystal. Head on over to her blog and youtube pages and check her out! I'll post photos when I receive the items. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2!

So my last post was about how I had won 3 contest/giveaways. Well, I have won more!

First, on Friday, July 8th, I won a Twitter contest through the Sacramento Bee for a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It was a prize pack that included a t-shirt, 2 posters, and 2 tickets to a prescreening of the film this past Monday. To win, I had to be one of the first two people to respond correctly to this question:

"1st 2 ppl win #HarryPotter (1) Name of Harry's snowy owl, Hermione's cat, & Ron's rat? (2) INCLUDE @wbpictures & "win w/ @beebuzzpoints ""

I was the first to respond to the question with all the requirements, correct answers, with correct spelling!

This is the screenshot they posted of their responses. I answered twice because the first time I didn't include "Win w/@beebuzzpoints"

I couldn't believe it! I was sooooo excited!

So, Monday night after work my boyfriend and I went to the theater to pick up my prize pack, not thinking we would make it into the screening because people had started lining up before noon to see it, but when we got there the line wasn't nearly as long as we had thought it would be, so we figured we take a chance and wait to see if we could make it in the theater, AND WE DID!!! It was a 3D showing, but that was still okay with me! I thought the movie was amazing. It was very emotional and only 2 hours, but I can tell you that I can't wait to go again for the midnight premier tonight!!! I'm just as excited to see it again as if it was the first time.

My shirt

I really like this picture because the words look like they're floating and not really printed on the shirt.

Extremely Good Luck

I don’t mean to brag, but I have won 3 things since Saturday! I’m so excited! I've had some extremely good luck these past few days. My boyfriend s a little disgusted by this since he says he never wins anything, but this past Christmas at his work party he won an iHome, so I don't know what he's talking about, lol :)

First, on Sunday, I found out that I won a Schick Giveaway hosted by the lovely Beauty By Krystal. The prize was a Limited Edition Schick Quattro for Women Razor AND a Schick Quattro for Women Trimstyle, both featuring a NEW conditioning strip enriched with Acai Berry and Jojoba Complex designed for a comfortable and incredibly smooth shave you could skip a day or two. Hopefully they’ll arrive soon!

Second, I received a notification this morning that I was one of 25K to win a NEW HD Advanced Lip Color from Milani. I entered on their facebook page some time last week. I didn’t get to choose the color, but they said “We made every effort to match your preferred color and truly hope you enjoy your new makeup.” I can’t wait to see what they’ve matched for me!

Third, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a member of a program called House Party. You sign up and apply to host parties that are supplied by different groups and organizations. They held a “Twitter Party” earlier this morning, and I was the first to answer a particular question with the correct answer. The question in particular was “In what year did Congress recognize the Pledge of Allegiance?” Now I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that I knew this off the top of my head, because I didn’t, but I was able to successfully Google my way to the correct answer and respond within 15 seconds. That I am proud of :) My prize? I won a VIP Party Pass which allows me to host any party of my choosing so long as I match the criteria the company requires for their party demographic. So, if the company/organization wants families with children as their hosts, I wouldn’t be able to host since I do not have children of my own, etc. I don’t mind though. I’m hoping to host a party with really awesome loot. I love free stuff and I know my friends do as well!

Now I've entered quite a few giveaways so far and I plan to keep on entering as many as I can. Here's to hoping I can bring home some sweet stuff!

I won!

Thank you to LorieM Designs! I won a copy of  her Fun in the Sun kit! I haven't received it yet, but I'm super excited to get it and use it! This will really help my digital scrapbooking project along! Thank you again! Stop by her blog and check out her designs. She has a lot of great things available.

e.l.f.

I recently discovered e.l.f. (eyes-lips-face) makeup. They're a company that produces inexpensive cosmetics that are supposed to compete with the high end brands such as Urban Decay, Smashbox, MAC, etc. I didn't know anything about them until Groupon had a deal last week for $35 worth of makeup for $15. I decided to take a look at their website to see what they had, and I immediately wanted so many things! Their products range anywhere from $1 - $6 for individual items. They also have kits and packages you can purchase, that are more expensive, but I’ve noticed they’re not necessarily a better deal. They cost the same as buying the items individually, so if there’s something in the kit that you’re not very interested, search for the items and add them to your cart separately. Then you can still have all the items in the kit, but you at least have them in your choices of colors, styles, etc.

So, after discovering e.l.f., I called my mom and asked if my parents had any plans for my upcoming birthday gift yet. She said no, so I asked for money to buy their makeup. My current makeup collection is several years old and makeup can go bad, and I had been hoping to update/overhaul it anyway, so it all worked out! After signing up for e.l.f.’s mailing list, I was sent a code for 50% off their Studio line of products so I wanted to order before the code expired. 

I hear from a lot of different people  on their message boards and fb page that their basic shipping was pretty terrible. It’s $6.95, you have to wait approximately 5 days for processing, then another 5+ days for the item to ship to you. I paid and extra $4.95 ($11.90 total) for the 3 day shipping, which was 1 day processing time, then 3 days to ship FedEx Priority. Unfortunately, they won’t deliver on weekends, so this extended my ship time, but I think it was worth the extra money not to have to wait 2 weeks for my order to arrive. My shipment came in yesterday and this, ladies, is what you can get for $100 (plus shipping) and 50% off the Studio line from e.l.f.:

My dear boyfriend went down our apartment complex's office to pick up the package for me and he was very surprised by the size of the order also. He was expecting a small box, but nope! This is everything:

e.l.f. Studio Endless Eyes Pro Eyeshadow Palette – Limited Edition

e.l.f. Essential Professional Complete Set of 12 Brushes

e.l.f. Essential Nail Polish Sets (5 piece) in Hot

I wasn’t able to order everything I needed to revamp my makeup collection, so I went back and placed a much smaller order to pick up a few more things. That should be here on Tuesday. I also lucked out because e.l.f. also has a special coupon code for their facebook fans on their fb page that gives 52% off of the Studio line. The code expires Monday, June 27th, so if you’re interested, hurry on over there!

I’ve tried a few of the items and so far I’m in love! The foundation is fabulous. It doesn’t feel greasy or heavy on my skin. The e.l.f. Essential Super Glossy Lip Shine in Pink Kiss (#2806) is great. It’s a bit sticky, but it smells and tastes great. I’m wearing my e.l.f. Essential Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in Plum (#7307) and I found that it was easy to apply and have had no problems with it. The e.l.f. Studio Blush in Candid Coral (#83133) looks great with my complexion. I was iffy about this, thinking it would be too pink, but it’s not. I’m so excited for my other products to arrive! If there’s anything you would like me to review or take more photos of, just let me know!


Thank you mom and dad for helping me get all this! Great birthday present!

Free Glasses

So I managed to snag a pair of free glasses from Coastal Contacts this morning! They had a coupon code available on their Facebook page that was available at 9am, that when entered, zeroed out your order for the first 10,000 people to use the code. It was great! They announced the giveaway yesterday, so I had time to get my prescription and search around for a pair that I liked before trying to rush this morning.

I picked out this pair

I'm very excited. They're almost the complete opposite of the glasses I have now, so I'm excited to see how they look on me. AND, here's the best part, if I don't like them, I can return them free of charge as well. They even cover the shipping! The glasses will come with a cleaning kit and screwdriver also. Due to the expected volume of orders they will have, they glasses should arrive in about 10 days. Crossing my fingers they look great!

Also, if you haven't yet, check out my other blog here.

New Design...Again

So, my adventures in the digital world have led to my newest blog layout. I used pieces of the Lavender & Chicks Kit I downloaded and made the layout completely from scratch. I guess I can't say it's an original design since I used someone else's designs for the pieces, but the style is all mine. It took me quite a while to track down the right CSS code to make my margins fit correctly, and I won't tell you how many times I had to edit the size of my background photo (quite a few) to get it to be just right, but I DID IT!

I think what I'm most proud of is that I am self taught in all of this. I have never taken a class on html, css coding, digital photography/manipulation, and I have to use Microsoft PowerPoint to do all of my photo editing because I do not have Photoshop. Yes I do some website editing for work, but we use a program called Teamsite that has everything pre-templated for you, no real code editing involved. It's similar to Dreamweaver. BUT, now that I'm learning more and more, I can put this knowledge to use at work as well.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to me gloat :)

Digital Scrapbooking

I've decided that I'm going to learn how to scrapbook digitally as well as by paper. I keep seeing all these cute desktop backgrounds and photo pages and I want to be able to create some of my own. Even though I don't have photoshop, I'm going to learn how to do it. So I've spent a great deal of time going to different places online and downloading any free packs I can find to start being creative! Wish me luck!

******UPDATE******

Success! At least I hope so :) This is my first creation using some of the digital art pieces I downloaded and PowerPoint 2010