Let me just say that I love these products from Benefit! PoiseTint and BeneTint are great lip and cheek stains and High Beam is a great  illuminating cheek stain. It gives you a nice glow. Try them and for $15 for the three it's a STEAL!!!  Also, they work well with Mineral Makeups.  Feeling Cheeky

Hoarding

So couponing seems to be all the rage at the moment.  There is even a tv show on TLC called Extreme Couponing.   Since I keep hearing that there are tons of people saving money doing it I thought I would check it out.  Let me just say I am utterly appalled.  I cannot believe the people they put on this show.  It is down right disgusting.  I saw one episode where a woman bought over 50 bottles of mustard...why?  WHO NEEDS THAT MUCH MUSTARD?  Not only do they feel the need to stockpile products...they will shove it EVERYWHERE they can in their house.  I saw another episode where a woman had her entire shower filled with toliet paper.  REALLY?  Another episode where a woman literally busted out a wall in her house to store the coupons in her "crawl space".

You know me I am ALL about saving money but this is not the way to go.  This is hoarding!  If a woman had her shower filled with cats you would all be shaking your head right now or if she had to bust out a wall to fill it with post its...again you would be shaking your head.  This is no different.  This is an addiction called hoarding!

This behavior is RIDICULOUS and in the end it will just end up making it so stores never take coupons again.  I'm not saying to never use a coupon but at least just try to save money on the things you NEED to buy from the store not 50 jars of mustard.  

I mean seriously...the woman in my pics above has her kid in a dumpster looking for coupons!  What is wrong with people?!

Do you coupon responsibly? ... If so good for you!  Just be careful ... apparently it can get out of hand super quick!

Side Braids

Quit Smoking!

It's not getting any better =(  cough cough...

Problem Solved ~ This Time I Mean It!!!

I feel like I am in purgatory of home furnishings.  Paul and I don't want to commit to new furniture to fit our townhouse because we will be moving soon so I think that and the fact that I am yes...CHEAP....is the perfect storm to why this problem NEVER gets fixed.  I need a place to write.  The lap desk works and doesn't work.  Last weekend, I finally said screw it...I AM BUYING SOMETHING...now here's where the cheap part comes in, because this furniture would not be permanent ... I don't want to spend a lot of money ... yet the cheap stuff isn't even cheap.  So still this problem goes unsolved....UNTIL NOW!  

Okay you know how I said I love house to home...the UK site.  Well thank you house to home for fixing my problem.....

http://www.housetohome.co.uk/room-idea/picture/bring-your-home-office-into-the-21st-century/6

Use your kitchen table!!  Seriously I have been secretly thinking about this...thinking why don't I just use the kitchen table and then I thought ... how will this work?  Now I know.  I am going to jazz up the table and make it feel like a work space.  Sure it will be rough having to pull stuff out and put stuff away but I do that now anyways.  So right now I am writing this with HIGH HOPES.  I am going to get a few items tomorrow....so a trip to Office Depot and Target and....

HERE IS MY NEW HOME OFFICE!!!!!!  I couldn't be happier!!!!

So of course my home office can't permanently stay on the kitchen table which was one of the reasons I never thought this would work.  So like the photo from house to home I needed a box to store my stuff in.  So, I bought this file box below...which has handles so it makes it easy to carry upstairs and store in my closet and fits all my stuff easily. 

So how much did my new home office cost?  

Tablecloth .... 15.99

Damask File Box .... 9.99

No more complaining .... PRICELESS!!!

PLUS....WAY LESS than a DESK and a CHAIR!!!

It's Back!

Look at the ash on the windows =(

House to Home

So I'm not really big on decorating stuff but I recently received an email from House to Home a UK design website.  Click here to visit.  I love this website! They had me with this photo.

Let me know if you check the website or if you have some websites to suggest.

I Can Breathe!!

Thank goodness the smoke is clearing up...cough cough.

Smoke Smoke Go AWAY!!

news4jax.com

Here is what it looks like downtown today!  

My throat feels like I smoked 20 packs of cigarettes!  

YUCK!!  How do smokers do it?  

Makeover Madness

If you are like me you hate the idea of a new hairstyle, a new color, etc. because there is always that fear of what if...what if it doesn't look good, what if I hate it in a week, etc.  So normally if I think about cutting my hair or doing a color change I just do it that day because I know I am going to talk myself out of it.  So today, I decided that I wanted to darken my hair.  I called a couple of salons and I have an appointment for MONDAY!  When hanging up the phone I thought...well by Monday I will chicken out.  So I thought, why not find a picture of what I want.  I am more apt to commit to something that I can see ahead of time.  So I went online and found this great feature on Instyle.com.  Click here to try it for yourself.  You upload a photo of yourself and you can try on different hairstyles, different hair colors and you can even try on makeup and even colored contacts.  It is a really neat way of doing a makeover.

Here are some hairstyles I liked on me.....

Since I liked the Ashlee Simpson hair the most I added some makeup.

I love this hair...however....I've had this hair before.  Am I missing the side bang?  I sported the side bang for so long...maybe it is time to darken up and add back the side bang.  I know what you are thinking...Shia your hair is dark.  Yes, this original photo and the one currently on my blog I have my "winter" hair color.  My hair darkens in the winter and totally lightens up in the summer.  Not really an appealing blonder version....it becomes like a reddish color.  This summer I am totally not feeling the light brown/reddish color.  See the picture below to understand what I am talking about.

Since like I said earlier, there's that chance of me talking myself out of the appointment on Monday.  I decided to do a few home remedies to see if I could get my color a bounce back on its own.  First off, I need to clarify my hair.  Perhaps I have too much build up.  

Okay minus the nap...but see how brassy my hair is...so maybe clarifying will help.

So any easy way to turn any shampoo into a clarifying shampoo is to add baking soda to it.  Bascially it is equal amounts of baking soda and shampoo.  See the pic below for how much I used.

So after I washed my hair, I decided to give myself an at home deep condition.  Bascially you can use any conditoner to do a deep condition it is all about heating it up.  I however had this product below which is a thicker conditioner.  

Bought this for 99 cents at Walgreens.

Basically, I put in the conditioner then covered my head with a plastic bag.  The natural heat from your head will set the deep condition.  If you have a plastic shower cap use that but if you don't save your money and just put a plastic grocery bag on your head and twist the handles to close it around your head and tuck the straps under the bag for a tight seal.  You can even continue to shower and no water will get in.  Also, did you just straighten your hair but you need to shower....use this method to keep your hair dry as well.

If you need a DEEP deep condition, sleep in it over night.  The longer you wear the bag the more of a deep condition you get.  

So now with this all said and done.  I am waiting for my hair to dry.  Once it dries I will style it and see if there is any difference.  I mean chicks normally want highlights in the summer so what's my deal with my natural highlights?  Seriously, I am someone who thinks...yes get highlights and then in a week I am over them.  So perhaps, I've just had my fill of this light hair and summer has yet to begin.  Sigh.

So as you can see...it helped!!  Not so brassy!  

This summer I think I need to clarify once a week especially if there are trips to the pool.  If you are leery about using baking soda in your hair, just buy a cheap clarifying shampoo.  You don't need anything spectacular...you're just looking to remove build up.  The clarifying shampoo that I have used several times and had great results is....

Suave Daily Clarifying

So since my hair appointment is Monday, I think I'll sleep on it and see what I think, but as for now...I am thinking I've solved my hair woes.  Since we are talking about hair...stay tuned for my next post, I'll be sharing some more tips and give you the low down on some new Redken products I am using.

Most Popular Post Ever

So I am trying to get to the bottom to why this post.......................................

(http://worldaccordingtoshia.blogspot.com/2009/12/bestest-lunch-buddy-ever.html)...is my most popular post.  Is it the lamp that apparently appeals to the world or does my mom have this page bookmarked?  Also, I realize that posting the link to the post will cause MORE hits but I just think it is funny that out of everything I have written this is the post that has the most hits.  I'll let you know what my mom says =)

Who knew?

So the other day I was at Barnes and Nobel checking out the magazines and I noticed that they were selling a UK version of Marie Claire (might I add...it was $10!) which I though who would pay $10 when they could just grab the US one....well it was a completely different magazine.  Who knew that all the women's magazines have different issues for different countries.  I had no idea.  Call me crazy but I though Marie Claire was just Maire Claire.  I mean most of the stuff they put in fashion magazines relate to styles going on in NYC so it's not like it really represents ALL of the US.  So anywho, I searched online and have now subscribed to numerous British women's magazines.  I've looked at French Marie Claire but not as easy to read as the UK version =)  

Also, who knew that there like a whole world of the internet that doesn't pull up when you type stuff in google.  UK stuff comes up under google.co.uk which seems weird I mean why doesn't the US have to type in google.co.us?  Now I am wondering if you live in UK and you just go to google.com do you get google.co.uk?  Or are all the .com's just for US sites?  Maybe this was common knowledge that I never knew but I seriously thought that the world wide web was the WORLD WIDE WEB.  Instead I find out that I am only getting a fraction of the internet without more in depth searches.

Why is the amazing news for me?  Well I want to be a writer.  I want to write for a women's magazine and Paul is now set on us moving to Europe and I thought sure...this will still work if I did become a writer...just email my editor in NYC and it'll all be good.  Now the options of outlets for submitting work to has just grown exponentially!!

Also, to all of you out there reading my blog outside of the US.  Thank you!  I'm always thrilled when Blogger tells me different countries had hits.  Also, maybe I am just being a "stupid American" but I really thought that google was just google.  Let me know how it works for you ... I am extremely interested =)  

Twitter

So I was sitting at Starbucks in Barnes & Noble writing a blog post and there were two girls sitting near me talking. There were a lot of OMGs and Likes being around between both of them. It scared me…I kept thinking OMG (pun intended) do my friends and I sound like this when we’re having a conversation in public? 

Why do we talk this way? We’re educated and savvy…so why does the “Valley Girl” sneak out? It’s really annoying but it’s really hard to stop once it becomes how you talk. If you say Like a lot try not saying Like….it’s LIKE (again pun intended) fricking hard! 

Do you talk “Valley” or have you overcome it? I think I talk "Valley" with some of my friends and not so much with others. Or maybe I do all the time and I am just in denial!....LOL.

Do or Don't?

So every magazine I flip through and every Ulta ad I get contains this new nail polish fad....

and how Sally Hansen is in on it too....

So what do you think?  Do or Don't?  My thoughts...you could

possibly  hide a bad paint job with this crackle overcoat.

Since, I can never seem to paint my nails perfectly this

MIGHT be a way to hide my flaws. But does it look good?  

That's the question.

Will it work?

I'm having a really hard time believing that this product works since the model here is from a season of America's Next Top Model {Eugena Washington} and she doesn't actually have any of these dark spots.  Sure it's the ad and they have to ... lie?  I've read reviews that this stuff doesn't work and I've read some where people state it worked like magic.  So, here lies my problem....I have a small dark spot near my eye...which can totally be covered up with makeup but I really want to see if this stuff eliminates it...but for $49.50 for 1oz that is pretty steep.  Also, the description of the product on clinqiue.com even states only 53% improvement!

So I just hit up ebay and currently I have a bid for $25...well see if I get it...fingers crossed.  I am also considering seeing if Sephora will give me a free sample.  I've gotten samples from there before so maybe I can try it for free.

So no dice on the ebay hook up.  I was out bid and now the price is approaching full price.  So I took my lunch break and headed over to Sephora and....I GOT A FREE SAMPLE.  So the chick at Sephora told me that I am not going to get any results from this free sample since it takes at least 12 weeks to work and that I might have to buy NUMEROUS bottles before seeing results.  That comment made me think of this scene from Sweeney Todd....

So do you think it doesn't work but Clinique knows that women are desperate to "stay young" so they will use anything and pay anything in the hopes that it will work?  Well here's a picture of my free sample from Sephora and the spot on my face is really small so this COULD last awhile and heck I'll just go back and get more.  So starting today (used some at the store May 31st) I will make note of whether or not this spot goes away or lightens.  See you in 12 weeks (hopefully sooner) with some results!

Also here's a picture of the dark spot....

OMG my eye looks wrinkly...LOL!

Cute and Smart Ideas

So remember this box.....

It is what my laptop skin came in.

So I finally found a use for it.

When Marissa spent the weekend with me we bought some stuff for her to have at Auntie Circle's house to play with.  I just remembered that I also bought glow in the dark sidewalk chalk...we didn't get a chance to use it but seriously I am excited to see this stuff in action...we didn't have anything this cool when I was young.  Also, the twistable crayons in the box...genius Crayola...genius!  Okay so maybe I did some coloring too!  LOL

I added her name to the box....I know she'll like this when she sees it.

And she got her own little space in my closet.

Okay so remember when I talked about recycling stuff from your bathroom like shampoo bottles, etc and how I was guilty of not recycling theses items as well.  Well I took this cute bag I got from a trip to Ann Taylor Loft and turned it into my recycle bin.

Okay I marked it so Paul wouldn't throw away my cute recycle bin. We basically use this same set up in our kitchen. We have two brown paper bags from Whole Foods that we separate our recyclables in...paper in one and plastics/glass in the other.

Since I showed yet another picture of my fabulously organized closet  I thought I would share a great tip.  I think my biggest pet peeve about my closet is my hangers, I am a bit obessed.  They all have to be black and I have two different styles.  I hate when I see closets on tv and they have all kinds of mixed matched hangers especially when it's someone famous or someone on a reality tv show gloating that they are rich and now famous because of reality tv.  

This one I use for almost all of my tops the sides really holds stuff on the hanger.

I use these for mostly hanging pants and some long sheave tops.

I also use this type of hanger to hang up skirts. Ironically they all match...no idea how that happened. Also, they were free...you know when they ask you...do you want the hanger?

Making your hangers match is a quick and inexpensive way to spruce up your closet. The cheapest place to get hangers is Walmart and they always have a variety of colors. Also if you want some bolder colors wait until the back to school sale. I've seen hot pink, teal, etc. Also, before you head out and buy all new hangers look at yours first. Of course, no wire hangers...yes joke intended...but seriously they get rusted and then rust could get on your clothes. Look to see what color the majority of your hangers are and go get more of that color to save money. When I made the switch to all one color, I used the mixed matched ones in my hall closet on coats and for the guest room. If you have neither...just recycle them or give them to goodwill.

Seriously, this is sad....my hangers are black and Paul's are white....LOL it actually ended up that way because when I had my mixed matched I had a ton of white and a ton of black.  It makes it kinda annoying when hanging up clothes to have to use two different stacks of hangers but oh well.  Let's not even talk about when I find my hangers in his closet...lol.  Hey I told you I was obsessed!

Mama Needs a New Pair of Shoes

These are my new shoes for summer and I LOVE them! I got these at Payless Shoesource, $16.99 but I got them for $13.99 since I had to go to a different location to pick up my size, it's cool that they give you a discount for having to go to a different location, so next time you don't see your size ask the clerk to locate them at a different store and save $3. I can't wait to wear them...also I am thinking...how can I wear these to work =)