{ " Dishes, Thrifting, and Blessings " }

It seems as if this blog is going to switch over from beauty, to lifestyle for a little while.
Things will probably get a little more personal around here too.

So some exciting things have been happening in Jane's little world as of late. I basically haven't stopped smiling for more than a short period of time in the last three months. I've always had the "life is beautiful" mindset, but it's there even more now. Life really is beautiful. God has blessed me with so much more than I deserve! I can't even describe it!

I'm preparing to start my "grown up" life, which is something I didn't see myself doing for quite a long time. God seems to give us the things we need, or desire, right when we stop thinking we need, or desire them. He has an amazing way of using the pieces of our lives to make one beautiful story. God has put an amazing man into my life (who will remain anonymous for the time being), who loves the Lord, and desires to serve Him with all of his heart. That was something I thought I was going to have to wait a long time for. I'm not sure why, but that was my mindset. Someday I'll tell you all our love story. It's quite a nice one to say the least. Our relationship progressed quickly, and before we knew it we were inseparable, and he was asking my dad's permission to court me. Marriage is our ultimate goal for our relationship, and I'm 100% sure he is the man God had planned me to marry.

Well, now here I am, buying dishes, preparing for our future together!
This blog post is supposed to be all about my latest thrift finds for my future home, and I hadn't planned to tell you all about Mr. Man, but I figured you'd want an explanation as to why I was buying dishes and what not!
I've been visiting a thrift store down the street from us, that is run by a Catholic church. They have amazing prices, and they don't sell anything in bad condition. I seriously can not believe the prices of the items! For instance, coffee mugs are $0.10 a piece, or $0.25 for three! You can't beat that! I didn't happen to buy any coffee mugs, but I bought a whole set of dishes! Service for eight, for $6.00.

The set includes eight plates, eight tea cups, eight saucers, eight little bowls, and eight dessert plates. That's forty pieces for $6.00! That is absolutely unbeatable! Really! The dishes are gorgeous, and as soon as I saw them I knew I had to have them immediately!

Tea cup and saucer.

Bowls

Here is a comparison of the bowl beside my hand.
You can see in the other photo of the bowls that they are quite shallow as well.
I bought separate bowls to go along with them, because I honestly can't see a man ever eating that little amount of food! ;)

Beautiful dinner plate! 

Comparison of dinner plate, and dessert plate.

I also picked up a few other odds and ends at Salvation Army. All of which cost $8.00 all together. 

Gold tea light holder; and gold leaf napkin holder = $0.99 each!

Green milk bottle vase = $0.99

I couldn't resist getting this! It's close to impossible to find my name on anything.
So when I saw this, and that it was only $1.99 I snatched it right up!
I mean, c'mon, what are the chances?!

Two "man" mugs = $0.59 each!

Four Pfaltzgraff bowls = $2.99 all together.

I have a bunch of other things up in my hope chest, some baby clothes, dishes, more mugs, and etc. I'll have to explore in there again, and make another post about what is stored away in my hope chest. For now I'll be sure to post about all of my thrift finds! I'm addicted to thrift shopping, but when you can get everything above for only $14.00 it's insanely exciting! I think Mr. Man is very thankful that his future wife (nope, we're not engaged yet) is a thrift-aholic, and he was very excited to see my great deals! I absolutely can not wait until yard sale season! Especially now that I have a legit reason to start buying homey stuff!

The next chapter in my life is starting, and I have to admit, this is the one I have been anticipating for years, and years! I just never thought I'd get here!

Lots of love,

{ " Happy December! " }

Time has certainly flown by, especially since my last post! I can't believe that it is already December 1st! Only 24 days until Christmas everyone! That's only a little over three weeks. Isn't that insane?! I feel like it was just September, yesterday. 

Life has been a little bit crazy as of late. I've been spending time crocheting gifts, being with amazing friends, gallivanting around with horses (especially my girl, Trixie, who is pictured below), and helping out my family. 

Life is good, everyone. Life is really good. I'm amazed at all of the blessings the Lord is pouring down upon me as of late. It seems that since September I have seen Him work in my heart, and my life, and He has given me so many things I do not deserve. This holiday season I have so many incredible things to be thankful for.

So, I've gotten back into crocheting big time. I managed to make four scarves in a week, and I just started my second baby sweater. Pictures of my crochet items will come soon, along with links to the patterns for your viewing pleasure! 

I will also have some new beauty product reviews up in a little while, or as soon as I can get myself to sit down long enough to write them! 

I am always so excited for this time of the year, the special time of the year to celebrate Christ's birth, and giving to others! 

Well, I'll see y'all around! 

Thanks for reading!

{ " Neon and Floral " }

I've been on a kick with these Jamberry nail wraps on my ring fingers.
I have to work the rest of my manicure around them, which isn't hard, because the wraps have quite a few different colors in them. I have been loving the neon trend, but I don't have any neon polishes. I really need to find a couple, because I think neon nails are so eye-catching and gorgeous!
This polish is actually from my Shany nail art polishes. I just cleaned off a brush from another polish, and used it in this neon pink. It doesn't have a name, like all of the other Shany Cosmetics polishes I have. But, it's gorgeous, and it's neon.
Unfortunately the color isn't coming out right on camera, and it looks more coral. It is a bright bright bright neon pink. I'm bummed that it is coming off like this... but, that's okay. It kind of gets the point across.
The little gold studs are from the new Sally Hansen nail art kits that came with white rhinestones, black rhinestones, and the gold studs. I love the gold with the neon pink, it looks absolutely gorgeous. You could obviously use any neon pink to achieve this look, and even a coral or a neon purple would look gorgeous. I just love the little bit of charm, yet edge the studs give to a manicure. They are so versatile too!

This wasn't a very informative post, but I just wanted to share! Summer is so much fun, and I love the bright colors that come out in this season! Though, I will wear bright colors ALL YEAR LONG if I can.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 

{ " Bright Polka Dot Nails " }

Hi everyone, I'm still alive!
That's a shocker, isn't it?

Anyways, just here with a little nail design I have been wearing for the past couple of days. This manicure has held up pretty well, seeing as I did it on Monday morning. Generally by the second day all of my polish has peeled off. There are a few chips, but it's somewhat outstanding that the polish is still even on! I just put on another layer of top coat to seal in the chips just for a little bit longer!
The ring fingers have Jamberry nail wraps on them. I got a sample nail wrap from a friend, and they have been on without fail for almost six days, which is excellent! There's a little bit of tip wear on them, but other than that they're in perfect shape. I would even be tempted to order some of these, even just for accent nails! I love them!

Anyways, on to the full manicure.

The yellow polish is Julie G Canary Islands,

the orange is Julie G Old San Juan, and 

the white polish is Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy Sure Thing. 

I'm not sure what the Jamberry nail wraps are called, but I love them. If I were to order some in the future, I would order these ones. 

I just made the dots with a Shany Cosmetics dotting tool from Amazon. 

This is by far my favorite manicure as of late. It's just so fun, and springy. Plus I got quite a few compliments on it! I guess that's what happens when you wear a bright mani! 

I enjoy doing my nails, and even though my polish only lasts for about a day or two, I love taking the time to paint my nails! 

Thanks for looking, have a wonderful week!

{ " Drugstore Haul " }

I have only every posted one other haul, because I don't normally do a lot of shopping.
I usually buy things every once in a while, and normally just one thing at a time.

Well, yesterday Abigail and I went out for a little girly day, and we headed over to CVS, before we did some grocery shopping. I had a ton of coupons. Like $20.00 in coupons. I love CVS, because they will put more than one coupon on an item. So, I had one coupon that was $5.00 any two Revlon Cosmetics, and then $1.00 off of any one Revlon lip product, and I was able to use them both! I had several other coupons as well, but I can't remember what they were!

So, I ended up spending about $35.00 on all of the things pictured (Along with one Baby Lips lip balm for Abigail), which was an insane deal.

1) Nivea Lip Balm - Kiss of Olive Oil & Lemon - $3.59
- I haven't tried this lip balm yet, but I opened it to smell it. It smells amazing, like natural lemons, with a hint of that olive oil smell. I don't usually like Nivea lip balms (besides the lip butters), but I have heard a few people rave about this one, so we'll see how it goes!

2) Revlon Colorburst Lacquer Balm - Demure (105) - $9.49
 - I have been eyeing the new lacquer and matte balms from Revlon for quite some time. I just couldn't put out spending $8.00 to $10.00 on a lip product, so I kept putting it off. Well, I had the two Revlon coupons, and they were having the 'Spend $10 get $3 in Extrabucks' on Revlon stuff. I did see mixed reviews on the lacquer balms, and a lot of people said some of them had glitter in them. I didn't really want one that had excessive glitter, but I ended up with one. The color is gorgeous. It's exactly what I wanted. The glitter is a little annoying, because it remains on your lips after the color wears off, but you can't feel the glitter on your lips. I was a little disappointed with the glitter, but it's not worth returning. I'll definitely get a lot of wear out of it. A more detailed post about this product will come soon!

3) NYX Butter Gloss - Eclair (BLG02) - $5.29
- The NYX Butter Glosses are some of my absolute favorite lip products I have ever tried. I have five other colors, but this is definitely my favorite! The color is a perfect nude pink, and I love it. I don't have anything bad to say about it. I will definitely post a swatch of this as soon as possible!

4) Maybelline Color Show Nail Lacquer - Pretty in Peach (115) // Emerald City (255) // Frozen Over (315) - $4.49 
- I have had a couple other Maybelline Color Show polishes, and I was only impressed with one of them. But, the color range they have is gorgeous. They have every color imaginable, in every shade, and every finish. They are also quite affordable. In my opinion at least. They are more expensive at CVS, then they are at Walmart. I have used two of the colors Pretty in Peach and Frozen Over so far, and I love them. I will definitely do a swatch post soon!

5) Revlon Nail Enamel - Gray Suede (705) - $5.99 
- I saw this nail polish in the regular bottle, and then saw it in the Limited Edition packaging. I figured it was a better idea to get it in the L.E packaging, plus it is gorgeous. The color is kind of a rosy grey, with a beautiful sheen through it. It will be a nice 'nude' color, without actually being nude. I will also swatch this one as well!

6) Vaseline Lip Therapy - Rosy Lips - $2.37
- I bought this after seeing several people rave about it, and I like it so far. Plus, the tiny little Vaseline container is absolutely adorable! There isn't much tint for my lips, but it makes my lips super shiny! It's basically pure Vaseline with tint, and rose flavoring/scent. So, basically it's glorified Vaseline in a cute little tub.

7) Scunci No Slip Grip Hair Ties, and Scunci Beautiful Blends Clips - $5.99each (From Price Chopper)
- Price Chopper was having a BOGO sale on all Scunci and Conair hair accessories. So, I picked up these no slip rubber hair ties, and clips. So, I paid $3.00 a piece when it comes down to it. It was such a good deal, I couldn't pass it up!

So, if we added together all of the prices without tax, it would have been $56.87.
In total without tax I paid $33.39!

That's more than $20.00 difference, plus I earned $6.00 in Extrabucks rewards! I'll probably end up spending the Extrabucks on a deal that earns more Extrabucks. ;) Just keep them rolling in!

I'll pop up some detailed reviews on a few of these products, along with a review on a new facial exfoliating scrub, a body sugar scrub, and a hairspray as soon as possible!

{ " A Small Collection of Nail Art " }

I've been working on my little nail art doodles lately. I find it very relaxing, and a lot of fun.
Generally I paint my nails, and then about an hour later I decide to add some fun to them.

I just have a little collection to share. All of the little designs are made using my Shany nail art/striping polishes. The designs are pretty self explanatory, so I won't go into detail or write up tutorials. These can be copied with any polishes, nail art brushes, and dotting tools.

Base polish: Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Petal Pusher
Topcoat: Seche Vite Dry Fast

Base polish: Wet 'n' Wild Mega Last - 2% Milk
Topcoat: Seche Vite Dry Fast 

Base polish: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - I Lilac You (370)
Topcoat: Poshe Super Fast Drying Topcoat

I need to experiment more with my stamping plates, so that will definitely come next. I'm having so much fun with these simple designs. The polish doesn't stay on very long, because for whatever reason my polish peels off completely in about a day. It's so aggravating, but I love to play with different polishes, so I don't really mind. ;)

Look out for more of these! They'll be coming!

{ " NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss // Nude Pink " }

- Thank YOU Blogger for absolutely killing the quality of this photo, and making it look nasty and green!  Just what I wanted! - 

So, my CVS started carrying NYX products... which is amazing, and dangerous at the same time. (I am in love with their Butter Glosses, and I already have five, this gives me a way to get my hands on more...) I had seen the display a couple months ago, but I kept myself from buying anything. Then I was there again last week, and I couldn't resist. I had heard a ton of good things about these Mega Shine lip glosses, so I decided to try one. 

I was looking for a different color, that I can't recall the name of, but I ended up picking this one up. I have a love-hate relationship with this gloss... It's okay. Definitely not amazing. 

Price: Around $4.99 (CVS, Ulta - etc.)

Scent: Disgusting - I'm sorry, but it is. I have heard people on YouTube talk about how the scent/taste is nice, and kind of cherry like. Then I've heard some talk about how it is horrible. Well, it's nasty. I just hate it. The very first time I put it on I was tempted to wipe it off. It smells exactly like Benadryl. Like, children's, nasty, horrifying, pink Benadryl. Guess what it tastes like! That's right, that fake, cherry, soapy Benadryl. Now, I can't say if all of them taste/smell like this, but this one does, and it's horrible. It kind of made my lips feel funny as well, almost tingle a little. 

Packaging: I love the packaging. The tube is the same exact color as the gloss inside. (I'm unable to tell if the tube is clear, and you see the gloss, or if the tube is opaque and the same color as the gloss.) The tube is also a square, which is totally awesome. I love square lip products, because they don't roll about when I'm trying to photograph them! Also, there is an absolutely adorable little 3D bow on the cap, which c'mon, all girls love bows. 

Formula: The pigmentation is pretty awesome. This is more like a lacquer than a gloss. It is quite pigmented, and very light on the lips. It's not sticky at all, and just glides on smoothly. It does settle into the lines of my lips, which isn't very attractive. I don't know if it's just this color, or if it's the whole line of the glosses. But, I don't really appreciate it. It doesn't stay very long on the lips, but it's a gloss, glosses don't usually last very long. I love the color, I just wish the formula was a little more agreeable. 

I'm in the middle with this product. I think I'd give it 3.5 stars, because the pigmentation, and the color are gorgeous. It's not sticky, and it goes on very smoothly. This gloss is pretty shiny, but nothing amazing. It's just disappointing that it settles in the lip lines, and that the smell/scent is absolutely disgusting. I'd like to try some other colors, but we'll see if I'm brave enough! 

There are definitely better glosses out there...