Customize your own makeup

I believe I've mentioned before that I have quite a fondness for beauty products.  I love makeup, I tend to buy some when I'm in need of a little pick me up.  I realize that I don't wear a lot of makeup, and yet, I still love to buy it and play with it.  Perhaps it's a throw back to my childhood when I loved to play dress-up!

I have two different shades of blush that I absolutely love.  They are vastly different shades of pink; however, they both look great.  I accidentally shattered the remains of both containers (probably because my makeup bag is overflowing) and I've been looking for a way to repurpose them so I don't have to buy new.

I typically wear bronzer underneath my blush for a little extra "glow."  I decided to mix my 2 blushes with some bronzer to see if I could create a fabulous color that would perk up my complexion a little.

One of my shades happened to come in a little box in which I could easily mix my colors.  If you're not that lucky, you could easily find a small lidded container in the travel/trial size section of most stores.  I began by using a spoon to mash the rest of my blush into a powder.  I then scraped the remains of the other blush into the container and mashed and mixed the two.  Then, I took 2 different shades of bronzer (yes, I tend to buy a variety of shades of everything) and mixed them into the 2 blushes.  I found that it was easier to use a small makeup brush to scrape the bronzers into the blush and it made it more powdery and less chunky.  I kept adding a little bronzer at a time until I came up with a color that looked nice on the back of my hand.

Using a chopstick to stir was easier than a spoon

I like it!

In the kitchen with Lindsey 2!

Every Thursday my friend Lindsey and I get together and cook dinner.  Now, of course, we gossip and chit chat and drink wine as well, but the dinner is the main attraction.  This week we decided to make my famous Ritz Cracker Chicken.

Katie's Famous Ritz Cracker Chicken
Ingredients:
1 pkg. boneless, skinless, chicken breast
1 pkg. italian dressing mix (the powedered kind)
2 Tb. (approximately) grated parmesan cheese


Preheat your oven to 350.  Crush about 10 Ritz crackers into a bowl.  I used the bottom of a water glass to crush the crackers very finely.  Add the package of italian dressing mix and the 2 Tb. of parmesan cheese.  Mix together well.  Dip the chicken breast into the mixture until it's completely coated.

 This stuff is amazing!

Place the chicken breasts on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 min. at 350 degrees.  Take the chicken out and flip it over.  Bake for 10 more minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked (not pink in the middle.)

Should be a lovely golden brown

This is a great breaded chicken that can be served with spaghetti and marinara or with some veggies.  Lindsey and I ate it tonight with edamame (frozen, from Kroger.)

Dee-lish!

Coffee Talk

Most of you know that I am addicted to coffee.  I especially love this time of year when all the fall and winter flavors are offered at the coffee shops.  Really, who doesn't love a delicious Peppermint Mocha?  Unfortunately, I can't necessarily afford to spend $4 on a flavored latte. 

Luckily, my dear friend Laura bought me an espresso maker and milk steamer for Christmas last year so I can make all the lattes at home that I want.  This is a lot cheaper than the local coffee shop and I can personalize my drinks in any way I choose.

The seasonal drink craze got me thinking.  What flavors represent fall and winter the best?  For me, winter always smells like my mother's cinnamon rolls.  I don't actually like to eat these cinnamon rolls; however, they smell amazing and it's not Christmas without them.  These particular rolls are a Finnish family recipe called Nisua.  Not only do they have cinnamon sugar in them, but they have cardamom and a drizzle of vanilla icing.  The cardamom is what gives them that particular "Christmas-y" smell for me.  I decided to try to create a coffee drink that embodies all the qualities of Nisua. 

Cardamom is hard to find.  I bought mine at Central Market

Nisua Latte Ingredients

Simple Syrup:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
1 T. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cardamom

Latte:
espresso (dark coffee would work too)
1 cup milk
cinnamon

Making your own coffee flavoring is really easy and super cheap.  A basic simple syrup is 1 part water and 1 part white suger.  For my Nisua simple syrup I poured one cup of water and one cup of white sugar in a saucepan.  I stirred the mixture continuously and brought it to a boil.  At this point, I took it off the burner and added 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of cardamom.  The syrup was a golden brown color in the end.  I let the syrup cool then transferred it to a glass bottle using a funnel.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month

Now it's time to put together the latte.  I brewed about 3 oz. of espresso (if you don't have an espresso maker, you can use whatever coffee you choose.)  I poured a small amount of my syrup into the bottom of a mug.

I put a wine pourer into my bottle to facilitate pouring, it also acts as a lid for storage

I then sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon in the mug and swirled it around to mix the syrup and cinammon together.  I then poured my shot of espresson over the syrup and swirled the mug to mix again.  Next, I steamed about 3/4 cup of milk until it was the correct temperature and poured it over the syrup/espresso mixture. 

If you pour your milk so it hits the side of the mug it will mix the drink for you.

Dee-lish!  You can make any variation of this latte, now that you have the basic steps.  Try adding peppermint extract to the syrup instead of vanilla.  You can also add a little chocolate syrup before adding the espresso to make it a mocha instead of a latte.  All in all, this latte probably cost me about $1.  Plus, I could hang out in my jammies to drink it!



These boots are made for walkin'

I love Fall.  I think it is my favorite season.  In Ohio, Fall is absolutely beautiful. Crisp, cool, with spectacular orange and brown colors popping up everywhere.  Texas autumnal weather is not nearly as fabulous.  Still beautiful; however, it's still 80 degrees and sunny.  I'm waiting for the 60 degree scarf weather with bated breath.  Oh well.

Since Fall is upon us I decided to inventory my Fall clothing options.  My favorite pair of boots are brown knee high boots with a short wedge heel.  They go with everything and work for both Fall and Winter.  Unfortunately, the zipper broke on my boots last year.

I took my boots, and several pairs of stilettos (I'm very hard on my heels) to my favorite shoe repair shop.  If you live in the DFW area I highly recommend Texas Boot, Shoe & Saddle Repair on Williams Rd. off Camp Bowie.  These amazing gentlemen are extremely nice and their pricing is fair.  As I showed them my poor, sad, broken boots they told me that they could replace the zipper pull; however, it would be tricky and could result in having to replace the entire zipper...quite expensive.  These fine Texans suggested that I replace the pull myself with a keyring.  How amazingly honest is that?  They were willing to lose my business so I could fix them in a cheaper way.  This is precisely why I continue to take my shoes there.

Anyways, the idea was brilliant!

Materials:
Tin snips (or some other small metal cutter)
2 matching keyrings
Needlenose pliers

First, I had to remove the broken pieces of zipper pull from the zipper.  Using the tin snips, I snipped the zipper pull so I could use my needlenose pliers to remove the pieces from the zipper.

Be careful not to cut the actual zipper piece, this could be a tragedy!

Once I removed both zipper pulls from my boots all I had to do was thread the keyring in to the hole on the zipper.  Easy as pie!

The ring makes a nice, sturdy pull

The best part about this fix is that it makes the boots look very '70's...very in this season

I Love Shoes!

I have been searching for the perfect pair of blue ballet flats to replace a favorite pair of mine that has bit the dust.  I don't seem to have a problem accumulating a lot of red pairs of shoes...but it seems impossible to find cute blue ones.  As I was cleaning out my closet this weekend, I found an old pair of navy suede flats that aren't too disheveled but could use a good spruce. 

Please forgive my photos, I seem to have misplaced my camera and I had to take these photos with my phone.

Flower and ribbon flats

Materials:

Ballet flats
2 strips of fabric approximately 2" x 20"
Coordinating ribbon, approximately 1" wide
Fabric Glue
Scissors

Take 1 strip of your fabric and fold it in half lengthwise.  Iron the fabric so there's a sharp crease.  Do the same to the other fabric strip.  With your scissors make small slits, about 2/3rds of the way down along the folded end of the fabric, about 1/4" wide.

Don't worry about getting your cuts even, it looks cuter if it's messy!

Next, roll your strip with the folded side on top, dabbing a little bit of glue every few turns.

Keep rolling and gluing until you have a tight little bundle. I clipped the glued end with clothespin to let it set

While both of your flowers are drying, take your ribbon and cut it into 2 6" strips.  Fold the ribbon ends under, overlapping, so the top of your ribbon is about 3 inches long.  You can measure this against the top of your shoe and cut it to whatever looks best.  Glue the ribbon so it stays together, I also clipped these with clothespins. 

Once your flower bundles are relatively dry, you can spread the loops out a bit to look more like petals. 

Now, it's supposed to take the fabric glue about 24-hours to dry.  I, of course, am impatient so I decided to put the shoes together and let it dry all together so I didn't have to wait!

Squeeze an inch long glob of glue on the toe of your shoe, wherever you want your decoration to go.  Press the ribbon centered on the shoe.  Squeeze a small dollop of glue in the center of the ribbon and press the flower (the glued, non-loopy side) onto the ribbon.  Place 2 clothespins clipping the ribbon to the shoe on either side of the flower.

Let your shoes dry for at least 24-hours before removing the clothespins. 

Voila!  A cute upcycled pair of flats!