No no spend November here!

Welcome back!! To myself that is.  This week has been nothing shy of complete Craziness and super tiring.  I haven't even opened my laptop, I'm sitting here on my phone during a break at school Praying this works. 
Anyway- besides my crazy schedule, There is a point to this post: Why sir Dan and I aren't participating in  No spend November. 
Debt sucks.  There is no doubt about that.  The government seems to care less about Racking up our national debt these days Ssoo there's that.  Dan and I have student loans, And that's it for our debt.  No credit card debt Or outstanding loans, Just student loans. 
I think for a one income family  And one full time student that's pretty freakin awesome.  We've worked very hard to keep it that way.  And of course we'd love to see our student loans vanish,  Who wouldn't?? 
We are paying the monthly payments to pay them down And over the course of our years-  They'll be gone.  And that's fine cause we are making progress. 
I had a client the other day who told me this: Her father always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon But passed away before living out his dream.  He told her  to save money but live for the now.  I loved that saying.  We are saving but we are also living.  We found a groupon for $30 tickets to the Radio city Christmas spectacular!! We sale shop 98% of the time.  We are planning a vacation.  We will have a date night next week.  And we are still putting money into savings. 
Why restrict yourself and know what's out there When you can go live and learn.  We've perfected budgeting and that's how you  Can pay off debt/save and have fun.  Buy 1 not 2 pair of shoes you don't need.  Go see a seasonal concert (we are!)  Because they don't travel in the summer or not in November.  Christmas shop now when all the deals really are!! 
And that's why we aren't participating in no spend November.  We are too busy living and having a good time :)

My Favorite Hair and Makeup Products

What woman doesn't want to talk about hair and makeup?! New products, trying new things, tips and tricks, colors... the fun goes on.
Being in cosmetology school, I've learned a lot of tips and tricks. Some I use, some I use only on clients. So today I decided to share with you all whats in my cosmetic bag!

These are my every day go to products. I don't know what I'd do or look like for that matter without my dream team.
Lets start with my hair products. These are just some that I use every day: Bed Heads Ego Boost Moroccanoil Luminous Medium Hairspray Catwalks Thickening Gel Riccis Head Trip Locked Up Root Booster
At school we sell Bed Head, Catwalk, and Riccis products. So of course I have a ton of them floating around. You can buy all but the Riccis brand in stores. I highly recommend Ego Boost if you have split ends and need a lightweight leave in conditioner. Moroccanoil Hairspray is the best hairspray on the market. It's slightly expensive but it's fabulous for your hair. And with short hairstyles, you need a lot of spray. Catwalks thickening gel is freakin amazing! If you have thin and/or fine hair that won't do anything, buy this product NOW! I have both thin-fine hair that hates volume or being thick, I bought this and it looks like I have triple my normal hair, I get tons of volume, and a little goes a long way. Riccis Locked Up is a root booster to help boost volume from the root and help to give you the upmost volume. Mix that with the thickening gel and you're a sexy hair goddess.
** Also amazing tip: if you want a post makeup finishing mist that'll help your  makeup last all day, spray hairspray on it! It's better than a finishing product. It's sticky at first but once it dries, you can't even tell**
My go to eye makeup: Urban Decays Naked 2 Palette Maybellines Dark Brown Eyebrow Pencil Maybellines Falsies Mascara Mally Volumizing Mascara elf gel eyeliner
If you aren't great at doing eyeshadow or making a smokey eye, the naked palette is fool proof. You can mix all the colors or a couple and create a sexy simple look or sexy smokey eye. Nicole's eyeshadow color tip: Most people think to match the color of their eye to the eyeshadow... NEVER DO THAT!! One thing most women don't realize is  just how important eyebrows are for the final look. A filled in eyebrow is super sexy. You don't even need an eyebrow pencil, you can use eyeshadow!! I use both. Try it and let me know what you think. I use two mascaras- one for volumizing, one for length. Both of these together makes my eyelashes look fake and sexy as hell. Gel eyeliner is the new thing and let me  tell you, I'm so glad I tried it. Now I won't go back to anything else. Sometimes if I want a fine line I'll use my felt tip liquid eyeliner. But for $3 this gel liner is bangin!!! 
Last but not least, my face makeup: Covergirl Trublend foundation Physicians Formula bronzer Mac blush
I go between liquid and powder foundation, right now I'm rockin the trublend. It's lightweight and blends perfectly. Physicians Formula to me has the best bronzer out there. I haven't found another bronzer like it. Put the bronzer OVER the foundation and you'll forever have a sexy glow. Don't forget to blend down through the neck, nobody wants a tan line. The Mac blush was gifted to me, it's verrryy pigmented so I put a little on and boy does that little go a long way. Never put blush on below your cheekbones, start at your apple and swipe upward over your bone.
Hope this helped or gave some insight into awesome and generally cheap makeup purchases. Next time I'll talk about contouring and highlighting.

A Beer Pong Table, Pumpkins, Football, and Bonfires

Today I'm linking up with Sami  from Sami's Shenanigans ffooorr:

Saturday morning was spent at school, and it was a heck of a busy day. Since there are only about 10 of us on the floor able to take clients, we were all doubling up. It was crazy but awesome at the same time. I also got to try Sexy Mother Pucker extreme lip plumper which was weird feeling. It makes your lips tingle and feel numb, but it made my bottom lip larger.

Saturday evening after a hectic day, and many plan changes, we headed to Hartford for a Halloween party at a super fun bar with my sister and her fiance plus a couple of our friends. My sister informed me literally 2 hours before we would have to leave that it was a costume party... yea we didn't have a costume. Somehow I thought of the easiest, coolest homemade couples costume ever.

We were a beer pong table.

And boy was it a hit at the bar.

We carried around pong balls and had people play.

We were also asked to enter the group contest...

we didn't win but was told but half the people that we should've.

Sunday morning we slept in after a late night out.

It felt so nice to not set an alarm, let me tell you.

After we finally got our act together,

we went out to brunch at a local diner

and then pumpkin picking!!

I sat in the wheel barrel and was literally crying

I was laughing so hard... but made for a cute picture.

Sunday night we headed over to my parents house

for our usual bonfire and dinner date.

And we carved our pumpkins too!!

Dans is the awesome minion,

mine is an angry (suppose to be happy) pumpkin.

We also made banana boats,

which is bananas, chocolate, and marshmellows wrapped

in aluminum and put in the simmering fire.

Welp lemme tell you-

you're suppose to use hersheys, not semi sweet choc. chips.

We also didn't have marshmellows.

They weren't bad,

but definitely not great.

More fun to make because we were laughing so hard

at the provocative looking bananas.

So there ya have it. I also received great news Friday night at work: I am being promoted and start my training as a bartender at work. I'm super excited to finally be trained and working as a bartender. I also feel extremely honored because I was  chosen amongst the many people I work with. Here's to new adventures :)
How was your weekend?? Do anything exciting?! Share below.

The Not So Perfect Me.

Around here I like to keep things fun, quirky, and all about hair with a side of food and marriage. That's the way I normally am every day in real life as well.
However,  there is a side of me that I try super hard to hide on a daily basis.
I have severe paranoia and anxiety. About a lot of things. And it drives me absolutely nuts every day.
Some things that I constantly think about are: bugs, lice, money, health, allergic reactions, death, work, my future, cleanliness... the list goes on.
Most seem stupid and crazy, but for some reason they haunt me. It's a daily struggle to try and get them out of my mind.
I haven't found anything that works except for whenever I'm with Sir Dan. He just has this way about making everything go away. I feel safest when I'm with him. It's great and bad at the same time. I'm hoping one day to feel this way on my own.
Every day I work towards relaxing and letting everything go. Little by little I will get through this.
Does anybody else go through stuff like this? Any advice??

The Time I Thought I Could Be A Fashion Blogger

I'm not really one to be  in the fashion now. Sure I try to be, but because my wardrobe consists of  mainly black, it's extremely hard.
However, I'm a sucker for some cute boots. And over the past couple years, I've worn the exact same pair of boots. Now they are torn and worn like a retired prostitute. With some money I've been saving from work, I decided to treat myself to some new ones.

I'm obsessed with them both. However does anybody else have this problem?!?!

One side zips all the way up, the other doesn't quite make it?! What the heck calves!!! So now my goal is to stretch the crap outta these boots so that they both zip up. So now I'm wearing them around the house  in hopes that they'll be stretched enough for tomorrow. Highly doubted, but a great idea.
Have you bought any cute boots for the upcoming season??

A Fall Filled Weekend

I'm super sad it's Monday, for once. I normally love Sundays and Mondays, but this weekend was too much fun  and I don't want it to stop.

one. Sunday night at my parents house consisted of one of my favorite home cooked meals, a bonfire, and crazy convos about child birth. needless to say- I'm not going to be bearing children now. two. we had to stop at target really quick and I spotted this. It's October 20th... this disgusts me!! three. Saturday night we hit up our fave local bar for some drinks after our adventure up to NH. four. at the Keene annual pumpkin festival. literally hundreds upon hundreds of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.  five. at a beautiful lake in NH. so romantic and gorgeous with all fall foliage. six. the beautiful path to the lake. seven. another spot on the lake. eight-nine. again at the pumpkin festival. one of the coolest pumpkins  at the festival. 
How was your weekend?! Can we rewind and do it all over again??

Vino. Vino. And More Vino.

After all of my years of drinking, and more importantly, this past year when my relationship with wine  went from casually dating to in a serious relationship- I've never been to a vineyard. Yes I know, I should be punished.
However,  this past weekend one of my best friends was celebrating her birthday and decided to head up to a vineyard in good ol' CT. There's actually a lot of vineyards in CT, which is just making this worse for me, huh?
As some of you may or may not know, Sir Dan does not drink alcohol at all. We were all slightly worried because it's a  day full of drinking, but he had equally as much fun.
Vineyards (if you've never been) are absolutely gorgeous and aren't just all about drinking (that's somewhat of a lie). Chamard Vineyard was absolutely breath taking. It was a partly cloudy day, around 65 degrees, crisp with a slight fall breeze.
My friends sister and I did the wine tasting and found the most delicious fresh mines I've ever tasted. My favorite was the Chardonnay that they made  on premises and grapes from the vineyard.
And now I'm gonna let the pictures do the rest of the talking. But honestly, go to a local vineyard and relax. Especially around this time of year when the leaves are changing and the air/weather is beautiful.

The wines we tasted

wine tasting buddy

the best wine I've ever had

the vineyard