Do Blondes Really Have More Fun?

I went and did something absolutely crazy! Platinum blonde. That's right, I went for it. Going blonde is something I've always wanted to try out, but haven't ever fully committed to going through with. Getting from my dark brown hair to platinum took a lot of work, and it didn't happen in one day. There were a couple days where I had some pretty weird colored hair, but it was all worth it once I achieved that platinum color with minimal damage. Now you for sure think I'm crazy, there's no way I could bleach it 3 times without completely frying off my hair, But it's true! All you need is a great licensed hairdresser, (luckily mine is my sister) and a product called Olaplex.

I'm not going to get into everything about Olaplex because this is a product only a licensed professional can buy. Basically how it works, is when you bleach or color hair, 'bonds' in the hair-strand are broken and what Olaplex actually does, is reconnect these bonds. 

So I guess you want to ask, do blondes really have more fun? I'm not sure yet, but I plan to find out!(:

p.s these pictures were taken about a month after I actually bleached my hair so my roots are already starting to show. Being platinum when your hair is naturally dark requires a ton of maintenance! I think next time I go back home I'll add some low-lights or something since I'm not around enough to keep up with it. 

Disneyland!

When we were kids, my parents used to take us all to California to visit my grandma and that usually always meant a trip to Disneyland! Well last summer when I was trying to find something to do for our next little vacation my sister mentioned that her and her husband were going to go to Disneyland. That's perfect! I thought. I hadn't been in years and I was excited to go with damian cause he hadn't ever been! And to top it off, it was the Diamond Celebration! Celebrating 60 years of Disneyland! Damian thought it was all only going to be little kiddish and no fun. Boy was he wrong! I think he was pleasantly surprised with how much there was to do for adults, not just kids! Here are some pictures documenting our first trip to Disney together!

Trailer Renovations part 2

Well I finally did it! I changed out the flooring in the kitchen area of our fifth wheel! I've been wanting to tackle this project for a long time but I just never got around to it. We originally had planned to use laminate flooring because it was easy to install and looked really nice. Unfortunately after we brought a box of the laminate floor planks home, we realized our slide out probably wouldn't slide over the boards because they were too thick. So I went to our local Menard's and picked out the same style and color flooring that I originally wanted, but got the box of planks in vinyl instead of the laminate.

The first thing I did was find out how many square feet I needed to cover which was around 36sq feet. I ended up buying two boxes of vinyl planks and had maybe one or two pieces left when I was finished. Now a lot of vinyl planks are self-sticking so all you have to do is peel off the backing and then stick your floor down, but of course the one color and style I picked out is the only one that wasn't a self-stick. I bought the recommended 'Pressure-Sensitive Flooring Adhesive' and headed straight home to get started. 

The thing that made this project so easy, was that the vinyl planks I got said you could lay them down right over linoleum, no subfloor needed. I just cleaned the floor really well, making sure there was no dirt or grease stuck in any corners and then laid down a pattern. Now I'm not a professional so I'm sure there was a different way to do this, but the way I did it worked for me. No complaints over here!

My pattern is staggered by at least 6 inches for each main plank.

I measured and cut the end pieces and glued them down until the entire floor was covered! Now we just need to caulk the edges and our kitchen has once again transformed! 

Book Recommendations

I am someone who absolutely loves to read. Lucky for me I have a lot of free time on my hands! Some of these books I read in high school and have recently reread and fallen back in love with them.  They are also in no particular order because I really enjoyed them all! So here is a list of some great recommendations for all you fellow book lovers out there looking for something new to read!  p.s. 98% of the books on this list are series. What can I say? I hate when a good book has to end.


The Selection Series by Kiera Cass
        Genre: Fantasy
        For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself—and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.       


The Nightmare Affair trilogy by Mindee Arnett
        Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder.

Then Eli’s dream comes true.

Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.



Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
        Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy. 




Reckless Magic (Star-Crossed series) by Rachel Higginson
       Genre: Fantasy, Magic

16 year old Eden Matthews has been in and out of private schools for the last two years. She can't seem to stop herself from closing them down. Kingsley is her last chance to finish high school and the last private school willing to accept her.

She is focused on just getting through graduation until she realizes Kingsley is not like the other private schools she's been to. The students may be different, but so is she. And after meeting Kiran Kendrick, the boy who won't leave her alone and seems to be the source of all her problems, she is suddenly in a world that feels more make-believe than reality.

To top it off, she is being hunted by men who want to kill Kiran and her best friend Lilly is taken away to a foreign prison. Eden finds herself right in the middle of an ancient war, threatening everything she loves. She alone has to find a way to save her best friend and the boy who has captivated her heart.

Reckless Magic is an intricate story about mystery, adventure, magic and forbidden love. Eden Matthews is an unlikely heroine determined to save the world and be with her one, true love before it's too late. 



Shiver trilogy by Maggie Steifvater

         Genre: Fantasy

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Matched trilogy by Ally Condie
           Genre: Young-Adult Fiction

In the Society, officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one…until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic. 

Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver

       Genre: Young-Adult Fiction 

Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't. 

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

        Genre: Young-Adult Fiction 

Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything" — at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf's Department Store.

This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong.

Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help, maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

             Genre: Thriller, Romance

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer.. she might become his next prey.

Viva Las Vegas!

Last May, Damian and I went to Vegas to get out of North Dakota and have some fun! I had just turned 20 a couple months before we left so we weren't really able to gamble or anything. That means I had to come up with other things for us to do that would still make this mini vacation a blast. We took a trip to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, went to a Cirque du Soliel show, Mysterè, and visited Madam Tussade's Wax Museum. We also walked up and down the strip (countless times) to stop and watch the free shows that a lot of the hotels put on. We went for a ride on the New York, New York roller coaster and had so much fun we had to do it twice haha.

 

We stayed at The Grand Chateau. It is right behind Planet Hollywood and right by the strip. The free vallet and no resort fee definitely sold us on staying at this hotel, as well as a rooftop pool! We stayed in what they call a 'bedroom villa' so it had a kitchen, a separate living room and my favorite, a huge 

jetted tub!(: 

Next time we go to Vegas I guarantee we will have just as much fun, if not more, when we stay at the Grand Chateau and find new things to experience and new places to explore!

Eyebrows

The one thing I always wish I could have been born with; Perfect Eyebrows. Instead I have basically no shape to my natural brows. Here's my trick to getting my brows to look more arched than they really are. Everyone has different eyebrows but you could apply this technique to any shape and get the results you want.

Lets talk about the product I used in this post before we dive in. Its Benefit's 'Brow Zings' and I am in love! It has two different things in it which for me, are both necessities when it comes to doing my brows. First it has eyebrow wax. If you have never used a waxy brow product, I suggest you try it out a.s.a.p. It will change your life! The wax makes it so easy to apply, and it also helps with keeping your hairs in place. The second thing it has is eyebrow powder. I find that since I am over-drawing my arch area, I need some powder on top of the wax to help it blend in with my natural brow. This kit also comes with two mini brushes and mini tweezers for on the go!

My sister has pretty good brows and doesn't need powder so she uses Anastasia Dip Brow and thinks its been sent down from makeup heaven. It's also about $10 cheaper than the brow zings but it doesn't come with the brushes or the tweezers. If you have good brows and don't need to over-draw your arch or anything, I would go with the Dip Brow.

Using the angled brush from the brow zings kit, I always start on the arch of the brow first. Outline the shape you want your arch to be, but be careful not to stray too far from your actual hairs or it will
be way noticeable.

Start filling in your brows using the wax starting at the bottom and working your way up and out towards the tip. Don't start filling in the inner corner yet or it will get really dark, really fast.

Make a line connecting the bottom of the inner corner to the rest of the brow.

Without any extra product on your brush, blend that line up and over until all of your brow is filled in.

Now in the picture above, if you look closely you can tell where my actual eyebrow hairs are and where it is filled in. To help fix this problem, take some powder from the brow zings kit and fill in this area. See the difference that makes by looking closely at the picture below.

After your brows are all filled in, take some eyebrow gel and apply it to your brows. When I use eyebrow gel I always push the hairs upwards and spread them out over where I filled in the arch to help minimize the appearance of a drawn on eyebrow, and then just take the gel brush and clean up the hairs so they are in the lines of your eyebrows.

Now a big problem I used to have was trying to make my eyebrows look the EXACT same. I could spend a whole hour just trying to get my eyebrows to be identical. Here's the secret. Most natural eyebrows aren't the exact same anyway. Your eyebrows are sisters, not twins. 99% of people aren't going to be staring your brows down and won't really notice if they are a little off anyway. Hope this helps with those of you out there wanting better eyebrows than what you were born with!(:

Products Used & Talked About

Benefit Brow Zings

Mary Kay Eyebrow Gel (see local distributor) 

Anastasia Dip Brow

Anastasia Brush #12