Small Ulta Haul and Review

Hello All!
("All" referring to the three random readers viewing this...)
Never done a "haul" post but I went to Ulta yesterday and had a few opinions on the stuff I bought and just wanted to share it. Initially, I was on a mission. I saw a nail color on vintageortacky's (youtube beauty guru) video that I LOVED. It was a dark orange color from China Glaze called "Riveting". When I got to the store, I thought it would be a relatively easy color to spot, but it wasn't... long story short, I couldn't find it and went home with a different color, and a few other products. 

So instead of the China Glaze color, I found this one that seemed ("seemed" being the key word here) very similar, so I decided to try it out.

Piggy Polish "Damsel in this Dress"

This is Piggy Polish in "Damsel in this Dress". Btw, I kinda love cute, clever names in cosmetics, so how could I deny this?? Apparently, it's supposed to "go on toes" but I've never followed packaging labels and I'm not about to start now! This was around $8, which is a little steep for me but since I was going to buy a China Glaze color anyway, I figured what the hell.



I got home and tried it on, of course! It's a kind of a metallic, shimmer color. However, unlike most other nail polishes of this type, it only required two coats to get a nice even color, which I thought was a very good characteristic. I'm not wearing a top coat, so it might look a bit less shiny for that reason. Overall, I really liked this particular color and thought it was the perfect color just in time for spring. 

The other product I decided to splurge on was a base coat because apparently, if you use nail polish a lot like I do, you should probably wear a base coat to protect them. An unspoken rule that I had kinda been avoiding for a good 10 years.... but since my nails do get a bit yellow, I decided I should start taking care of them. So, I bought this: 

Sally Hansen Base Coat

This is the Sally Hanson Base Coat, which also runs at about $8. I don't really have a review right now since I just bought it (duh!). First opinion though, I don't like the color of the bottle simply because I can't see how much product I have left, but that's my only complaint so far. 
While waiting to pay, they had a some of the crackle nail polishes on clearance. I figured for $3, it was worth the shot. So I also bought this OPI shatter nail polish. 

OPI "Blue Shatter"

I tried this on over the Damsel in this Dress because my school colors are orange and blue and thought it would be a cute combo, however, I couldn’t even get the nail polish to “shatter”. It was kind of thick and hard to work with. I put one coat over but it was very thin and you could see through the color, so I applied another coat and it just covered the whole nail like a regular polish. I was disappointed to say the least, but was glad that I didn’t buy it full price. It’s still a nice blue color so maybe I can still use it.

That’s all for today! If you have any questions, please leave a comment. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of the day!

Very amateur painter

When I was younger, around 13, I watched a few episodes of One-Stroke painting on PBS. She made it seem so simple. Just a few strokes and you'd created something quite beautiful. So started my love affair with painting. It is relatively simple to do, but at 13 it was a bit complicated. My mom bought me some paints and brushes and I began to practice. My first tries were not even fridge worthy. They looked like painted stick figures. But I remained persistent and I kept practicing. It took me a good three years to finally paint something worthy of hanging on our wall. My mom has hung up several of them around the house and has even given a few away to some friends as gifts. When I started college, I had stopped painting for a while because of lack of time. I picked up a brush again a few months ago and found that thanks to muscle memory, I hadn't lost my touch.

I was going for abstract flowers kind of thing.

It's not too hard to learn how to One-Stroke paint. There are plenty of videos on youtube you can learn from.

I'm hoping to start painting more than just one-stroke. To branch out and see what I can do.

Pancakes kind of day

Woke up this morning with a big hankering for pancakes. I sauntered over to the kitchen to make some and found that we were out of pancake mix! What a travesty! That shouldn't even be allowed... but so began my quest for a recipe for pancakes from scratch (as well as how to create the universe).

This looked promising.

I had found a very good one before but couldn't find it again and since I was starving, decided to settle for the one shown above.

I only had 12 year old baking powder though. Why it hasn't been thrown out is beyond me. I decided to use baking soda, which was questionable itself. According to Google, a third of baking soda is required to substitute for baking powder.

They came out quite good, as can be seen below. They seemed to be missing a little something though...but once you poured on the maple syrup, all was right with the world.

By the way, that largest to smallest spiral effect they have going on was NOT done on purpose >.<

Just the way they happened to come out of the pan. 

And because I had blueberries and I kinda love them, I made a few with some berries.

So ends my adventures in breakfast making for the time being. If you've never tried making pancakes from scratch, I highly recommend. It's relatively simple and a lot more satisfying.

Memories.

I was randomly browsing my journal the other day and came upon this entry.

"Sunday, June 5, 2011

I didn't go to UC Davis. I stayed. Because it was safe. Because it was comfortable. Because I chickened out. So much changes in a year and yet so much stays the same. I'm still vying for the heart of a boy who I'm almost 100% positive no longer wants me. But it's that almost that keeps me back, that almost that makes me think there may still be a chance. So I stick around. I joke, I make bets and keep agreeing to his crazy ideas because like he said, it may be the last time I get to say yes. Because I keep thinking that this time, it's ME that needs a second chance. And it's that small ounce of hope, like when he says he has to take advantage because I never talk to him, that keeps me around."

 "I'm still vying for the heart of a boy who I'm almost 100% positive no longer wants me."


That line. To me, it's one of the best things I've ever written.

I have no recollection of writing this entry.

I wrote it on my birthday.

Grizzy on Hiatus

I know it's been a very long time. I don't know how I managed 11,000 views, but when you've been gone for so long, I guess it just happens.

I broke up with my bf in June. The day before I turned 21. When that happened, I just lost most of the enthusiasm I had for writing. Mostly because he'd been my inspiration to write in the first place. It's been a very slow going process, but I think I've dealt with it pretty good. Every day gets easier, and I've found that every day I think of him a little less. It's still a little hard though. Especially since he left without so much as saying good bye. And it's hard when everything reminds you of him. Like motorcycles. And Linkin Park, and All American Rejects, and WoW, and techno music and Cinemark and almost everything else. But enough about him.

School's been keeping me pretty busy, and since my scholarship requires that I keep at least a 3.5 GPA, I'm having to work extra hard this semester so it doesn't drop below that. It's very time consuming, but not impossible. Actually, I noticed that if I had worked this hard all three years before, I could have had a 4.0, but I get lazy and I hate studying and the only reason I'm doing it now is because I have to. I also got a job. I will be working in a lab as soon as I find a professor that has room for me. As far as first jobs go, this one isn't too bad. I'll get paid $10 an hour, and I can work a maximum of 19 hours and a minimum of 0 =D I don't have a set schedule, I just go in whenever I can. I think it'll be good, I like doing lab work, so it shouldn't be too bad.

My goddaughter was born on October 29, 2009. She's the tiniest thing I've ever seen and the only baby I've been able to hold for longer than 10 minutes without crying. Her dad says it's cause she recognizes my voice, and she should I spent almost every day with her mom during the summer and at least once a week once school started. Here's a picture:

Let's see... what else? Yesterday I finally did something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I went to a cemetery for Halloween. We had to sneak in since it was closed and since it's a really popular place for Halloween it's usually closed, and there was security, but we went undetected. It was pretty creepy. At one point, me and my friend both heard a very loud exhale coming from behind us, but of course there was nothing there. It had us freaked out for a good while, but we walked around for about 30 minutes without any more incidents, well not as noticeable as that one. Whenever we heard something we would always try to rationalize the sound, but there was no way to rationalize that breathing sound. And I should get props for jumping a wall in a dress haha. We had gone to a Sweet Sixteen, so we were both dressed pretty nice, but he gave me a boost when I was getting over the wall.

That's about it. I will try to update more, when I have the time, IF I have the time. I had forgotten how therapeutic it could be.

Up/Down

Up:
- Finally going running after talking about doing it for the past year.
- Going to the library and finding The Elves of Cintra available.
- Finishing my part of our presentation on bioterrorism for PMG (prokaryotic molecular genetics).
- Getting Bones, Grey's Anatomy and Southland all in one day.
- Going to my last organic lab class and realizing how close this sememster is to ending.
- My brother being home early.

Down:
- Getting a cramp about a block into running... Because I haven't worked out in about a month and not stretching because I wanted to go before it got even hotter.
- Realizing I might have to appeal my scholarship because my GPA might drop below a 3.5
- STILL not having resolved issues with my boyfriend, and having to wait until Wednesday on his only day off.
- Being home, alone, for about 75% of the day

Oh the nostalgia...

I was mindlessly sifting through the many videos that make up youtube, and some how came upon a non-disney princesses video collage thing, and it reminded me of all these great old animated movies that I'd totally forgotten about. Like

A TROLL IN CENTRAL PARK!

I used to LOVE this movie, and I haven't seen it in ages. Oh the beauty of youtube, I'm gonna try to watch it before it gets flagged for copyright infringement. If you're interested, here's the rest:
Click for movie!

But what about all the REST of the great non-disney animate movies?
Like...

Happily Ever After

Yeah, remember this one? The alternative, non-disney Snow White movie? Even though it's after...but still. I always thought of it as the other Snow White Movie.

Here's the rest of this one

Then there's Thumbelina!

Wee! Free movies!

And who could forget:

FernGully

Clickety click

And All Dogs Go to Heaven

And last but not least, Anastasia, whose embedding was disabled :( but you can find the movie here.

Does anybody else remember these movies? Did I leave out one of your favorite animated non-disney movie? Another one I always really like too, was the Secret of NIMH. Damn, that was a hardcore movie for little kids.

I'm thinking of maybe buying all of these on DVD if they have them, they'd be a great addition to my collection, and so maybe one day, my kids will watch them too.