Photo Dump!

I just realized that it's been ages since I've posted anything. In the time I've been MIA, I went to Oregon for a week. We went all sorts of places, pretty much all over Oregon, but the highlight of my trip was my last full night there. My cousin and I went to Sisters, Oregon. It's a quaint little town that over looks the Three Sisters mountain range. It was a cloudless, moonless night... perfect for star gazing, and Milky Way photography.

Is this not the most amazing view? Taken at Dee Wright Observatory in Sisters, Oregon at 5,200ft.

This was just one of the amazing things I was lucky enough to photograph. I think this will hold a special place as the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Want me to share some of my other pictures from the trip?

I hope you just said yes. If you didn't, you should probably find somewhere else to go, because I'm about to unload a bunch of pictures lol.

The "Phantom Pirate Ship" in Crater Lake

Crater Lake Panorama

We made another trip to Crater Lake. You'd think looking at a massive crater would be boring after the first time, but this type of beauty doesn't get old.

Mt. Hood as seen on the way to Ka-Nee-Tah. About half an hour drive from actually being on Mt. Hood.

This is two of the Three Sisters, shot as we were headed up to Dee Wright Observatory for some Milky Way action.

Remember the Milky Way photo from the start of this post? This is what it looks like in the day time.

That's all I've got for now. Blogger is being bitchy and I should go to bed. I'll add more photos to another post at another time.

It's Football Time Again!

My favorite time of year! I watch my Colts loyally, and will root for any other team that isn't the Patriots. A friend and fellow blogger Taylor (GlitterWHAT?) is having a football/makeup/team picking extravaganza over the course of the regular season. I'm participating, are you?

Wedding Pictures Galore!

I'm still working my way through over 1,500 pictures. Thankfully, I'm getting super close to being done. It's getting hard to find the motivation to do them, though. I want to be out swimming with my boys and doing stuff outside..... this is why I need a laptop. lol

I've Slacked Again.

I'm so horrible at this! I do a great job of posting for a while and then I get busy with life and totally neglect the blog. My Memorial Day weekend was busy, I started out shooting a wedding, then I shot some more pictures on Sunday, then Monday we had a massive cookout for 12 people. It was a great load of fun and I'm slowly wading my way through 1,500+ pictures (and that's just for the wedding) I'm gonna be at it for a while.

I was mowing my yard today and ran across a couple of baby cardinals who must have been learning to fly today. I had to move them to a safer location so I could finish my yard, but not before I snapped a few pictures. Anyone who knows me, knows I have a pretty ridiculous fear of birds, but these were little and cute.

I'm out of thoughts for now and need to get back to editing, but before I leave, I'm gonna add a picture of one of the little cardinals.

Isn't it adorable?!

It's Review Time! Facebomb Costmetics

I'm going to open this review by stating that I did not pay for these items, I won them in a pigment naming contest. I will say that the owner, Shayna, had no idea that I would be doing a review on her stuff when she shipped them. On to the review.

Facebomb is an indie mineral makeup company ran by Shayna Toole out of  Panama City, Florida. She runs an Etsy shop which can be found here and a Facebook page that can be found here and the Facebook group is here. Her colors are awesome, so are super glittery and some are more shimmery (there is a difference, which I may go into another time.) She has bright vivid colors and more neutral ones also. The color I named was Sunburst. Along with my pot, which was the prize for having your pigment name picked, Shayna also included an extra pot of pigment, Spring Purple from her spring collection, and three LOADED samples. There is seriously enough in these samples that I could fill at least a 3 gram pot, but I'm guessing they are almost the size of a full 5g pot.

My package was shipped in a bubble mailer, and the items were wrapped in bubble wrap. How's that for secure? Ingredients aren't listed on the pot anywhere, but an ingredient list was included in my package along with a hand written note. I didn't get any pictures of the packaging because I was too excited to see the pigment, but I have pictures of everything else. Are you ready for a photo dump of epic proportions?

It doesn't show, but this pot had a shrink band around it

Cute logo top sticker

Sifter stickers make me happy.

Names of the colors on the bottom of the pot.

My 3 massive samples.

Ingredient list

Are you ready for a swatch-a-rama?! I hope you said "Yes," because that's what's next!

All Sparkly Glowy

Sunburst

Spring Purple

Davy Jones

Hoggle

Now for a look with my new colors!

I used Sunburst, Hoggle, and Davy Jones with All Sparkly Glowy for a highlight

  

That's all the pictures I have for now, so I'm going to leave you with some final thoughts. 

Would I buy from Facebomb Cosmetics again? As a matter of fact, yes I would. I already have my next purchase planned out. 

Would I recommend Facebomb to others? Yes I would.

If anyone has any questions for me, please leave them in the comments section. One other thing I want to add before I go, the fact that I won these pigments did not sway my review at all. :)

Just When Things are Looking Up.

Something stupid happens and sends me back into a weep at everything state. This time the catalyst was my two year old willow trees. I plucked these little twigs off a freshly cut down old old willow tree that was probably 50 feet tall and raised them from rootless sprigs. I tenderly put them in cups of water. moving them from one room of the house to another to keep them in the sun as long as possible. It seemed impossible to me, but my dad assured me that they would sprout the roots that would grow them into a possible 70 foot tall wonder. Sure enough, after two weeks, my little twigs had roots. I quickly bought two flower pots and some potting soil and moved them from their cups of water to actual soil. Boy oh boy, they flourished! Within two months, they had outgrown their pots, so I dug up two holes in my yard. I kept them fairly close together, with dreams of a bench under the drooping branches where I could sit and read. All that summer, I watched as they quickly grew to be about 6 feet tall. I was so proud that I was able to take these little 6 inch branches and help turn them into actual trees. They made it through that first winter, and slowed in their growth the following summer. That brings us to this winter. We suffered a MASSIVE ice storm that shut down the town for 5 days. Everything was coated in 6 inches of ice, followed by 4 inches of snow. It was too much for my trees to survive. I noticed once it started warming up and everything was turning green that my beloved willows were not. I called a local greenery and they confirmed my fears, my willows hadn't been hearty enough to withstand being under so much ice and cold for so long. I cried at the loss of my trees, knowing that it wasn't just the loss of my willows that was making me so sad. It may seem silly to some to cry over trees, but I grew these from practically nothing. Looking out of my kitchen window and being able to watch them grow almost before my very eyes was so fulfilling. My mom has offered to buy me two new ones, and I will take her up on that offer because I still have a dream of reading beneath their overlapped hanging branches, listening to the wind rustle the leaves. I will do this one day, and I will think of my baby willows, and my dad, and all that I've lost this year.

What I've Been Busy With

During the time my computer was broken, I was still busy taking pictures. Once I got it back, I spent two or three days getting caught up on all my work. I've already shown you my nature pictures, now you get to see a peek of the other stuff I've been working on. :)

Spring has Sprung!

This is by far my favorite time of year. The flowers are blooming, trees and grass are starting to turn green again, it's life beginning again. This is what I've needed in a year that has brought so many losses. I'm going to share with you today some of my nature pictures that I've acquired (taken) over the last few weeks.

We had tornado warnings this night.

I snapped this one tonight after storm chasing.

I love weather photography and am obsessed with getting the perfect lightning shot. It hasn't happened yet, but I know it will eventually.

This is one of my most favorite places to visit. I came here all the time with my dad.

Inside the covered bridge.

I love the sunset.

I also adore taking pictures of flowers, and just being out in nature.

I love daffodils.

Wild Violets.

Apple blossoms.

I hope you enjoyed the photo documentary of my spring so far. I'm sure there will be many more pictures (hopefully one will be the elusive perfect lightning.) For now, enjoy the life springing up around you. Take it as a reminder that even though life sucks sometimes, and you have to say goodbye too soon to those you love, new life and new beginnings are just around the corner.

It's Review Time!

I had this review planned out over a month ago, but my computer died on me as I was prepping the photos. I'm going to talk about Virus Insanity Eyeshadows today. VIE isn't a vegan company (which doesn't make a bit of difference to me) and she sells some of the most awesomely bright shadows I've seen since taking my leave of Glittersniffer. I've ordered from VIE twice, once was a gift and once was for myself, and both orders arrived to me within a week and a half of payment. There was no need to contact Jenni to see where my order was or if it would be shipped. In fact, each time I ordered, Jenni let me know when my order was going to go out. The purchase I made for myself was the St. Patty's Day collection and I loved every color. I don't remember the cost now, but VIE often has sales that offer either a random 10/$25, or you can buy 6/$20, 10/$30, or 20/$55.

Now, on to packaging. My package arrived in a bubble mailer a couple of days after shipping. Once I opened the bubble mailer, this is what I saw:

Securely wrapped in a plastic bag

After you manage to get the pots out of the bag (they were very secure in there, this is a good thing) I noticed all the pots had labels on the top with the color name, and the bottom with ingredients.

I then took the lids off to begin swatching, and was met with more security measures. Sifter stickers!!!! I love these and I love it when sellers use them.

Are you ready for a swatch fest?! Here it comes!

Shamrock

 

 Shamrock is a pearly white with green and lime glitter

Drunken Leprechaun

 Drunken Leprechaun is a medium green with a red sheen. Neatest color ever.

Kiss Me, I'm Irish

 Kiss Me, I'm Irish is a medium/deep green with gold glitter.

Pot of Gold

 Pot of Gold is a pure gold with green glitter.

Luck of the Irish

 Luck of the Irish is a light shimmery gold

Lucky Glitter

Lucky Glitter is a mixture of lime, green, and gold glitter.

All of these color are available for purchase over on the VIE Facebook page, go check them out!



*none of these shadows were given to me for promotional use. I purchased all of these without the intention of doing a review, so the seller didn't give me special treatment.

The computer is still on the fritz, bit since I have several shoots coming up, I will hopefully have it working by this time next week. That would be super awesome since I did a shoot over the weekend that I cannot wait to edit. The images look amazing on my camera, I can't wait to see how awesome they are once I work my magic on them. Until next time, take it easy everyone. I hope to have some awesome things to show you all soon!

I just wanted to pop in real fast to let everyone know that my computer has died and that's why there's been this long silence from me. Once my computer is fixed I plan on doing a review of a mineral makeup company I recently discovered and posting lots of pictures of my LOTD (look of the day) and a few pictures from a recent maternity shoot. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging soon.

A Rare Photography Post!

I know it's been forever since I've featured any of my photography on here. I did a super fun maternity shoot with an adorable couple. I was lucky enough to shoot their wedding in October and they were kind enough to ask me to photograph the next special moment in their lives, her pregnancy. I'm hoping once they have the little guy that I'll be lucky enough to shoot him as well. Anyway, I worked on a few pictures tonight and this one stuck out as my favorite, so I'm going to share it with you guys.

click for full size view

Aren't they adorable?! I can't wait to see and hopefully meet their little bundle of joy when he arrives in a few months.

An eye makeup dupe!

I decided that I wanted duplicate the technique used here. I didn't want to do an exact dupe (I don't have all the colors in the first place) but I liked the way it looked over all, so I went about my merry way with the colors I decided to use.

A Public Service Announcement

As most of you know, I fell in love with a mineral makeup company called Glittersniffer Cosmetics. I'm coming to you all tonight with a heavy heart, but thankfully clear eyes, to inform you that I no longer support, endorse, or suggest the use of the pigments from this company. Lela Warren, owner and pigment mixer, has done some really terrible things, but seems to be a PR expert as you'll rarely see a negative comment on her fan page. I will list for you all my reasons for leaving.

1. She states that she is an all vegan company. This is a lie. Several of her pigments contain carmine which is a red powder derived from crushed up bugs. The nonvegan aspect doesn't bother me nearly as much as the fact that she claims to be a vegan company when she's not.

2. When the shit hit the fan in December and she closed the website, she made a list of  things she promised to do. Among the promises made were: selling only through the GS website, selling only what she had in stock (meaning no pre-orders on collections, sets, or pigments) She has gone back on her word on almost every single promise she made to her customers.

3. Starting in October of '10 she mixed up a few charity collections. The idea was that these collections would help raise money for several charities. A vote was held on the Facebook fanpage, and the fans chose the charities. The collections were released the first of November and were to be sold until December 24th when the money would be donated to GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) , ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) , and TWLOHA (To Write Love On Her Arms) This money was never donated.

4. The pigments are not made in a sanitary manner. She typically mixes the pigments in her kitchen, without gloves, with unwashed hands. That's right, she doesn't wash her hands before making a product that is going to go on your eyes. This would be a gross and unsanitary practice even if she weren't selling these items, but the fact that she sells them with who know what kind of contaminates is beyond gross.

There is much more that I can go into, but I'm going to leave it at this for now. More information can be found here, where the facts are presented in an impartial manner.

Edited to add: She knowingly sold unsafe pigments as safe for eyes makeup. This did not happen just once, but over the course of YEARS. There was a certain collection I own that I knew was not eye approved when I got it, but I am talking about regular pinks, and a CHILD'S makeup collection.

My first Madd Style Cosmetics order

I placed an order with a mineral makeup company called Madd Style Cosmetics last weekend and received it this weekend ( the lady that runs the company states in her Etsy shop that she ships on Wednesdays, so there are no surprises or wondering where your package is.) I gotta say, though I haven't used any of the new pigments I got today, I have some other one I bought from a friend, and I love them. The pots have cute stickers on the top, hand written stickers with the color name on the bottom, and, best of all, they come with sifter stickers. That means that even if those lids come loose during shipping, you're not gonna wind up with pigment all over.

The sifter sticker on the middle pot came loose, but I lost no pigment.

 

I love the hand written stickers

You can't tell from this picture, but these stickers are mirrored.

I bought a grab bag that came with two pigments of my choice, two pigments of the owner's choice, a new never before seen pigment, a lip balm, and a sample of her lip scrub for $15. I bought one and had a friend buy one for me since she was at a computer before I was, I should be getting that one in the next week or so.

Let me rave about the lip balm (or Hardcore Lip Bomb in Madd speak) The scent is Flapjack and it smells like I dumped a whole jug of maple syrup on my mouth. I could seriously eat the whole tube, though it isn't flavored. It is incredibly moisturizing to my lips and is pretty wonderful. Even better? It comes heat sealed!

I haven't tried the lip scrub yet. I did open the clamshell it came in to take a look, and I must say that the granules of sugar are larger than I thought they would be. I'll update once I give it a try.

Overall, I'm super happy with the condition in which my package reached me. I've ordered loose pigment before and opened up my package to a glittery mess, not cool. The shipping time could be a killer depending on when you order, but I'm cool with things taking a bit of time to reach me. People have to have lives even if they are running a business.

I was not paid, nor did I receive free items or preferential treatment for this review. These are my own opinions based on a purchase the owner had no idea I would review.