Almay Intense I-Color Smoky-I

Have you thought about changing up your makeup a little?  Rocking that ever-so-sexy smoky eye look?

As someone who is trying to get reconnected with her inner girlie girl and has a hard enough time sometimes getting eye shadow to look just right after a few years of not wearing any, this was not something I thought I would be capable of trying.

Know what?  I was totally wrong!

A few weeks ago I finally broke down after seeing the commercials (I don’t know why, but the commercials always suck me in lately) and went to my local Target (aka my home away from home) and perused the makeup aisles.  After taking a look at the packaging for the Almay Intense i-color Smoky-i eye shadow, I took a breath and added it to my cart.  With the actual application instructions included on the package I figured it was worth a try.

Total bonus, like the Covergirl Exact Eyelights mascara, it’s not just one smoky eye color for all.  The colors you purchase are by your eye color so they have them for me in hazel, as well as sets for browns, blues and greens.  And as always, Almay is hypoallergenic so I know it will be good for my face.

The first time I used it I was going out for the night.  It was so unbelievably easy to apply!   Darkest shade from lash line to crease, medium shade just above and lightest shade to the brow bone and corners of eyes to highlight.  Blend it all a little and you are Done! I like to throw on a little black eyeliner under the eyes and some mascara on my lashes to complete the look.

While I initially thought this was only a look I could rock for a night out on the town, I started to play with the look a little during the daytime too.  I realized I could put on my jeans, a black and silver tee shirt and rock the intense i-color smoky-i with some silver jewelry and even that looks great!  What can I say, I am in love with this new eye shadow.  It’s given me a whole new look for when I’m in the mood to be noticed.

You can find the eye shadow wherever Almay products are sold, or go to Amazon and rock it girl!

Bella Cucina Mini Donuts Are For Me

Have you ever wanted to make donuts at home?  Alice Horton (Days of Our Lives) I have never been.  A baker sometimes yes, but really just cookies, cupcakes and cakes.

I had never tried making donuts.  A few years back a Krispy Kreme came to our town and while it did not last long in New England (which is also known as Dunkin Donuts country), it was fun to watch them make the donuts though the glass.  I was not however, a fan of all the frying and flipping in oil.

My boys are all about donuts, which really is my own fault.  From the time they were about a year and a half old whenever I made my coffee stop I would also be caving to the pouty face and picking them up some munchkins or a donut.  It’s almost like they were born obsessed.  And the older they get the quicker I find myself wanting to curb their donut intake, as well as my own.

We got the Bella Cucina Mini Donut Maker and I have to say I love it.  It’s an all around family hit.  I put it on my counter, plug it in, and when the light changes from orange to green I’m ready to get cooking!  The instruction booklet even comes with several recipes.  Small homemade bite sized donuts in minutes.  You can cook 7 at a time and from just one batch I was able to make over 30 donuts!  I do not love cleaning anything to begin with, so I had that horrified thought of how am I going to clean all these little donut spaces.  But have no fear!  It is non-stick so we are taking super easy cleanups!  So far I have only made the basic donut recipe but I am loving the ones for higher fiber where you can substitute white flour with whole wheat or oat bran.  Now I’m controlling what goes into these snacks and I love it.

What I didn’t love so much is trying to glaze them.  I would seriously recommend skipping the glazing.  The donuts are so small you get more of it on your hand as it drips through the little hole and over the sides.  Just as tasty without glaze (and healthier too I’m sure).

The original retail price at Macy’s is $39.99.  Amazon has it listed at $22.49, but you can currently get it on sale from the Macy’s website for just $15.99!  How can you beat that!

White Sands Moisturizing Shampoo and Conditioner

A few weeks ago I was sent bottles of White Sands moisturizing shampoo and moisturizing conditioner to try out, then write about.  I was given the formula for dry/normal hair.

Even before the first use, I liked that the products were sulfate and silicone free.  The moisturizing shampoo and conditioner says it is ideal  for hair ‘that has become delicate from UV exposure, salon services, and hot tools.’  That?   Would be me.  Between frequently dying my hair, blow drying it and using the flat iron I do enough damage all on my own.  Not to mention in the warmer weather when I spend half of my day outside in the sun without a hat.

I opened the bottles and they smelled pleasant enough, but it’s a faint smell.  It’s not all overwhelming herbal essence-like on you.  I have to say that at first, that disappointed me.  I did not realize how accustomed I had gotten to waiting for that waft of perfume to hit me as I shampoo my hair, no matter what the brand these days… and believe me I am always switching brands.

I will be completely honest here.  The very first time I used White Sands shampoo and conditioner I was not only not impressed, but I had decided that I did not even like it.  I thought it made me hair feel … different in a way I could not place.  So I judged it right then and there and I was ready to write this up as a flop.  Then a few days later I received a second package from White Sands with another bottle of shampoo and conditioner.  I took that as a sign that maybe I should give this another go and try again.

By the second or third time I washed my hair I realized I was really starting to like this shampoo and conditioner.  After blow drying I actually started to feel like my hair was not only feeling smoother, but looking nicer.  I have now been using the products for almost two weeks and I am very pleasantly surprised.  I’m glad I didn’t give up on it after just one use because I have a feeling it took a few washes to get whatever junk was already in my hair from the other shampoo and conditioner I had been using, out of it.

On the White Sands website the shampoo retails for $12 at the 7.6oz bottle or $28 for the 33.8oz bottle.  The conditioner retails for $15 for the 7.6oz bottle or $34 for the 33.8oz bottle.  On Amazon.com you can purchase both the 7.6oz shampoo and conditioner as a combo for $26.98.  While I have never been a girl to stick by just one brand of shampoo and conditioner, I have a feeling I will be sticking with this one for the foreseeable future.  It just makes my hair feel good!

Disclaimer: I was not paid to endorse this product, it was however sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

Dance Central For XBox 360 Kinect

Remember my posting that listed my 7 Must-Haves for the Holiday Season?  Well my husband and my aunt were listening because I got three of my Must-Haves for Christmas!  *Squee*

My husband got me Dance Central for XBOX 360 Kinect – as an early Christmas present.  (Isn’t he awesome ladies?)

We have always had just about every.single.video.game.system.ever.  My husband has been a pretty big gamer since we were teenagers.  That was back when I used to sit on the couch next to him pretending to be interested in watching him play.  (Now, I don’t pretend…he knows I am just.not.interested.)  I haven’t been interested in fact, since Nintendo.

It’s true.

When I was small I remember getting an Atari.  It was so exciting!  Then we got Nintendo and I was all over Mario Bros.  My younger sister, brother and I would play for hours.  And then after awhile it was just them playing.  I was over video games.  Fast forward to high school and my then boyfriend now husband and I would spend a lot of time in … arcades (back when kids did that sort of thing) and on the couch at his house playing video games.

Correction.  He was playing.  I was faking an interest.

Right now the XBOX 360 and the Wii get a lot of play in our house.  My boys are following in their dad’s footsteps and love to play as well.  I have had zero interest in any of it… until that is, I was seeing ads for the Kinect.  Wireless?  No controller needed?  I was intrigued.

Then came the ads for Dance Central.  I mean I had to have this suddenly.  I was so excited about this I even wrote to the company that made Dance Central (Harmonix) to tell them how much I loved it immediately after trying it.  I almost never do that!  And about a video game!

For the last year I have been a sometimes avid, sometimes not at all, YMCA user.  We just put a hold on our account for a few months because we just were not getting there as much as we should.  After this winter maybe we’ll have more time to get back there.  But it’s January – which means there are only about five (5!) months till beach season (which equals bathing suits) and the boys are already bugging me about when we get to start hitting the beach again.

I have decided this game is going to be my workout routine.  It’s going to get me bathing suit ready once.and.for.all because the last 3 years I have struggled like you wouldn’t believe.  I’m thinking if I can put in one hour a day (after the boys go to bed), I may just finally look the way I want to.  While not even feeling like I am working out.

The game is rated T for Teens.  It is amazing because it breaks down all of the dance steps slowly for you.  You practice them.  It even shows you what you are doing wrong by highlighting the body part that isn’t moving correctly in red.  Levels on each song vary from Easy, Medium to Hard.  For the first 15 minutes you are playing you’re thinking about how you can’t possibly be exercising … another 45 minutes goes by like that as you move up levels and unlock new songs and suddenly your whole body is feeling the workout.  And all you were doing was dancing.

Oh, and super fun fact.  The game takes pictures of you dancing!  And plays them back for you!  A visit to Kinectshare.com allows you to access and share photos and videos from your Kinect games.  Unfortunately Dance Central isn’t on the list yet.   But WHO does not love to dance, while losing some extra weight in your own living room.  And (not that I have tried) but this could be a pretty fun game to pull out when you’ve had a few drinks and some friends are over (provided you are over 21).  Dance Battle feature.  Need I say more?

Songs on Dance Central range from Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” to Bel Biv DeVoe’s “Poison”… even Wreckx-n-Effect’s “Rump Shaker”.  Just shake your rump!  When you get tired of the songs that came with the game?  You can also go online and download new songs for about $3.00!

While all Kinect games retail for about $49.99, you can find it on Amazon.com for as low as $39.99!  Want to join me online?  My gamer tag is “Liza Rae”.

If You Have to Cry, GO OUTSIDE

Wait, no, I’m not saying that to you, but fashion public relations mogul Kelly Cutrone is. Her book fully titled If You Have to Cry, Go Outside and Other Things Your Mother Never Told You has been out in hard cover and e-reader format (I have it on my NOOK) for almost a year, and now it’s finally in paperback so let’s celebrate with a book review!

Kelly Cutrone is the head of fashion PR company People’s Revolution which is based nationally in New York City and Los Angeles. She is tough as nails and unapologetic for any toes she steps on while she tells you what she thinks. And that’s why she’s successful. Her book If You Have to Cry, Go Outside chronicles her journey from upstate New York high school girl with no specific goals or asperations to fashion world icon after one sweet sixteen birthday trip to New York City lit her dreams on fire. (New York City will do that to a young woman.)

Cutrone goes into detail of how she clawed her way from not even knowing what the word “publicist” really meant in the business world to being world renowned for her ability to turn someone’s small fashion idea into huge success. In her book she speaks of how her spirituality helped lead her to her successes. She tells how she lives her life as a warrior and does not indulge in complaining or worry about winning or losing each individual struggle, she simply does her job as the warrior she is to experience the struggle. She describes her experiences with fear as she grew her company and worried that she wasn’t the reason why she was experiencing her success, but rather it was the individual big name clients she worked with who might eventually leave her for a variety of reasons and then OMG the company is going to FAIL because that one client was the REASON I EXIST! She felt that familiar feeling so many women in the business world, and even in everyday life, feel: I’m a faker, I’m going to lose everything when they find out I don’t know what I’m doing. She consulted her spiritual advisor who told her to to replace the O in Worrier with an A (which would spell Warrier, but… let’s give the spellcheck to it and we get Warrior) and then Cutrone‘s entire mental process shifted from being scared of her success to being a master of it. I’m sure it wasn’t quite as easy as all that, but I have no doubt that really was the catalyst to her success.

And since it’s the title of the book, I’ll spill the beans on the crying outside chapter. Cutrone explains that crying in front of your co-workers ruins their focused work energy. Work is for work. And if you make a mistake, just handle it. If you’re not emotionally ready to handle mistakes or perceived mistakes without crying, just take it outside and handle your mini breakdown there away from all the others who are trying their hardest to stay focused on the game. If we took a break from work to handle everyone’s emotional crises our productivity would be… nonexistent, and that’s Cutrone‘s overall point. Cry outside, focus on kicking warrior butt inside. It’s a harsh concept to some people, but once it settles in you’ll realize you’ve never seen the UPS worker crying on your shoes for having to carry that same 50 lb package you had to box and tape up, put a label on, and drag over to the package pick-up area. It’s a bit of a light bulb moment to step outside of yourself and enter the head space of the next person in your path, and Cutrone does a brilliant job of bringing you there with this chapter.

Empowering women is the name of this book’s game, and I heart being empowered. It doesn’t matter if you like Kelly Cutrone as a person or care about the fashion world. If you need to know that you are worth it, that you are an awesome woman and deserve to have goals and aspirations to achieve all of your successes then give this book a quick read. When you’re done with scanning through it for the parts that call to you then savor the parts that resonate most with you, let them sink in, figure out how they work into your life or how you want them to work into your life. Those parts will likely help you get through some very tough times. (I know they have for me.)

Purchase the hardcover, Kindle, or new paperback version of If You Have to Cry, Go Outside and Other Things Your Mother Never Told You from Amazon. If you want to own the same NOOK version I do visit Barnes & Noble and log into your NOOKbook library.

Feature photo: Mel Rowling

George Foreman Makes Grilling A Breeze

Brian’s mom has a George Foreman G-Broil Supreme that she uses.  All. The. Time. One weekend while the girls and I were there, she and I did hamburgers on it for the girls.  OMG, it was amazing.  So I not so subtly said “Maybe I should tell Santa to put one of them under the tree for me.”

It came as no surprise when Christmas Eve rolled around and the one gift under the tree for me was a George Foreman Grand Champ Grill.  It’s a bit bigger than Brian’s mom’s, but it’s the perfect size for me and the girls. With just the three of us at home, and me working outside the house, there are a lot of nights it’s just too much effort and electricity to turn the oven on to cook dinner.  With the George Foreman Grand Champ Grill, I can do hamburgers, chicken breasts, steaks, hot dogs, you name it, on the grill in a fraction of the time, using significantly less electricity. And when you’re a single mom on a budget? Every penny you can save, and still provide your kids with healthy, cooked at home meals, is a bonus.

The Grand Champ has the following features:

• At 133 square inches of cooking space, it has the largest cooking area of all the George Foreman grills.  It easily handles 7 servings.
• It has the patented slope design so the fat that cooks off the meat slides into the drip tray away from the meat.
• The Signature Foreman heating elements so that every square inch of cooking space is used and not wasted.
• Preheat indicator light for added convenience
• The dishwasher-safe drip tray offers easy clean up
• It comes with 2 drip trays and 2 dishwasher-safe spatulas for easy food removal.

The girls and I first used ours to cook hamburgers.  I wanted to start off with something easy and with the Grand Champ, they were super quick and easy.  It takes the grill approximately 5 minutes to warm up.  Once the indicator light went off, I put 4 hamburger patties on the grill and lowered the lid.  5 minutes later, I had 4 evenly cooked, right off the grill tasting hamburgers.  In fact, the french fries we put in the oven before we started the burgers took longer to cook.  It was awesome.  Clean up is a breeze.  Once the grilling surface has cooled, scrape the fat, grease and scraps off the grilling surface into the drip tray.  Use a warm soapy sponge to wipe the grilling plates clean, then rinse the sponge and wipe away any soapy residue.  Dry with a paper towel and you’re done.

I have been looking through the cooking guide included with the Grill, and am looking forward to trying out new things.  I also found a website with George Foreman Grill Recipes that I am looking forward to going though.  I am so excited about the possibilities.

You can buy the Grand Champ Family Value Grill, the G-Broil Supreme or any of the other George Foreman Healthy Cooking Products at GeorgeForemancooking.com, at Amazon.com, or at Target.com.

Feature Image: seentvcanada.com

In Love With Simplehuman’s Sensor Soap Pump

I have a confession to make.

I am in love with simplehuman’s 14oz sensor soap pump.

It’s true.

It is the Christmas present that I did not even know how much I wanted, or needed, until I received it.  And it is wonderful!  I want to go out and get one for every.single.sink. in my house.

Let me rewind to a few weeks before Christmas.  Scene, my bathroom.  Each and every time I got in there, no matter how many times I had already cleaned it, I would find gobs of soap on the counter.  In the sink.  And a mess all over the small soap pump thanks to my three pump happy boys.  We were also refilling the soap pump like it was … well, water.

The simplehuman sensor soap pump has changed ALL of that.

The day after Christmas I put the four AA batteries in the bottom, filled and primed the pump.  What amazed me first is the choice of settings for the volume control.  That’s right, I control how much soap comes out of that pump now.  The next feature that had me falling in love?  The touch free sensor!  No more messy hands all over the pump.  No fingerprints.  No germs. The boys turn the water on, put their hand under the soap pump and are even entertained as it comes out.  It’s like magic!

As a mom, I am thrilled I am no longer cleaning up a mess on the sink.  Multiple times a day mind you.  I also feel good about it cutting down the spread of germs.  I never really did like the thought of touching that soap pump after the kids had already had their little hands on it.

Don’t have kids?  That’s OK too.  Think of how pretty and sleek it will make your counter top look.  When I tell you it is the gift I didn’t know I wanted until I received it, I mean it.  Plus, you are really saving on soap by using just enough each time AND you are helping the environment by refilling the pump - which means less waste.  It’s been a week and a half and I have Still not had to refill the pump.  Progress people.

Check this out.  While this product retails on simplehuman’s website in silver for $39.99 you can also check out Amazon.com and get the black one for about $25.24.  Awesome deal!

4th Generation iTouch, The New Apple Of My Eye

Santa was very good to me this year.  Well, good being relative.  He didn’t deliver the house elves I asked for.  I didn’t get the laundry fairies I dreamed of.  If he planted a money tree in my back yard it will be months if not years before it bears any fruit. (Probably not the most efficient gift I could have asked for). But he did bring me Apple’s new 4th generation iTouch.

I am in love. *swoon*.

The 4th generation iTouch has not one, but two cameras.  A front and a rear facing camera.  Both can be used with the Facetime app,, and to record HD videos.  They both take still shots as well.  Taking pictures and posting to Facebook or Twitter with just a few taps of the screen was a huge selling point for me.  But not the only new amazing feature of the 4th Generation.

The new iTouch has what they call Retina Display.  That means the images are so pixel dense the human eye can not see individual pixels.  The images and words on the screen are sharper, clearer, easier to see and read.   The display is also includes LED backlighting and a sensor that automatically senses the surrounding light and adjusts the display for the best viewing.

The 4th generation has voice control.  The iTouch knows the music in  your library.  Want to listen to a specific song?  just ask iTouch.  Don’t recognize a song on your playlist?  Just ask iTouch, it will tell you.  The iTouch recognizes such commands as shuffle, pause, stop.    Now if only my kids would listen as well as my iTouch.

Are you like me, and always setting something down and forgetting where you left it?  No?  Show off.  OK, while I probably won’t leave my iTouch behind when I go anywhere, it’s nice to know that if I did, and I needed to find it?  There’s an app for that.  If you lose your iTouch, (and you’ve registered with me.com) you can log in on any computer, or other iPhone or iTouch, and find yours.   Can they do that with my car keys?  Maybe my sanity?

The iTouch comes in 8GB,  32GB, and 64GB and can be purchased from The Apple Store, or Amazon among other retailers.

Featured image courtesy of Apple Innovations.

Dear Santa, Now That’s Entertainment

I will be honest, money has been tight for me and the girls this year.  So tight, in fact, that included on the list of “things we’ll have to learn to live without” was cable television.  For about 6 months now, the girls and I have been without television, watching only DVD’s at our house.  (We get to Keep up with the Kardashians on weekends at Brian’s, so we’re not completely out of the loop). So, Santa, until I’ve lived in the new house for a few months and until I have a handle on how expensive my utilities are going to be so I can determine if I can afford cable television, please send me the following for my entertainment.  I don’t want to appear as though I live under a rock when joining in the water cooler conversations at work.

Entertaining Holiday Gifts

First, send me the Complete First Season of Glee. Glee has become a surprise hit with a Glee Club doing covers of Broadway Show Tunes, to Classic Rock. People everywhere became hooked on Glee, (proudly announcing they were in fact ‘GLEEKS’).  I will be honest, Santa, when I saw the first episode or two, I was not overly impressed.  But since hearing some of the songs on XM radio, I have to say, my interest is piqued.  If I’m going to jump on the Gleek Bandwagon, I might as well jump on from the very beginning.

The next on my list?  A little known television show that I have loved since the very beginning.  The Good Wife.  Julianna Margulies plays the wife of a State’s Attorney (Chris Noth) who has been disgraced with a sex scandal and is locked up for abusing the power of his position.  Both Julianna and Chris are amazing in this series and with the loss of my cable, I’m sort of out of the loop.

The final series on my wish list Santa, is my guilty pleasure.  I am almost ashamed to admit that I adore Carrie Bradshaw and her girlfriends.  I wish I could sit down and write like Carrie, had the unabashed c0nfidence of Samantha, the logic of Miranda and the romantic hopelessness of Charlotte.  I would love nothing more than to curl up on the sofa with mug of coffee, a warm blanket and Sex and the City in the DVD player.  Sex and the City the Complete Series, would make plenty of my Saturdays dreams come true.

One-Item Holiday Wish List: Kindle

A few years ago my Husband and I came up with an ingenious money-and-relationship-saving plan:  We stopped exchanging gifts.  This had the upside of not spending money on gifts and trying to guess what the other wanted under the tree, and the downside of all the joy of Christmas being sucked the hell out.  It was all about the spirit of the season and family and crap like that.  It’s a Christmas miracle that we’ve avoided a massacre thus far.

This year, I’m being more bold.

I WANT A KINDLE.

I’m worried that I’m the last person in America to get one, and that if I buy it for myself, all sorts of alarms will go off and a parade of mockers will come out and point their fingers at me, so it’s a good thing to put on my “to be gifted” list.

I’ve resisted a Kindle for a while because of some prehistoric attachment to paper, and the love of “flipping pages” but I have to face facts:  I do  most of my reading on the train, and often I hesitate to bring a big, heavy book.  Because if it’s between reading material and a herniated disc, I’m afraid I’m going to have to go with health and safety.

And it doesn’t help that everyone I know who has one keeps raving about it.  And a few of my friends have even let me touch theirs.  It’s light and fun and the text is readable and I’m tired of lugging around my papyrus scrolls.

So, yes.  This holiday season I want a Kindle.  And if you could throw in some world peace, that would great.
The Kindle is available from Amazon.com.  Let me know if you’d like shipping information.

Feature image by Kevin Dooley

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