Cinderella made it to the ball!

The ball has come and gone. It was magical, fun and well, every girly girl's dream come true! I had a blast, my hubby had fun too. I really think he would have been just as happy sitting at home eating pizza, but this was a once in a lifetime deal. He is off the hook now, lol.
My neighbor was sweet enough to watch the kiddies for us and they had a blast playing with the other kids. They both raved about using chopsticks to eat their dinner, now it seems I will need to come up with a few sets for them.
My hubby looked so handsome!! I'm a little partial, but really. He was HOT! He said it was ok to post a couple of pictures of him on this blog, so I will add them later.
I managed to get ready in about 3 hours. My hair worked out nicely. It wasn't what I had originally planned to do, but I think it complimented the feel of the vintage vibe of the dress. The dress didn't fall apart either!! yippee, I'm always secretly worried that something will just pop off. But everything held together and stayed where it should. I got alot of compliments on the dress. I was the only person wearing anything close to vintage and definitely was the only one not wearing a prom style dress. My husband was surprised, and I have to say I was slightly disappointed, at how inappropriate some women were dressed. This wasn't an evening to show off your goods, it is an evening to support and celebrate our soldiers.
The venue was pretty. It was held at the big convention center out here. It was packed, I honestly didn't think that so many people would be attending. From our estimation there was somewhere from 600-800 guests! Most were higher ranking or officers and their significant others.  There was a lovely band that played during cocktail hour (which you had to pay for, lol). During dinner there was toast after toast after toast. Not even kidding. Even before we had a bite of food there were 6 toasts that we HAD to use wine for, it was rude to not use alcohol for those toasts... the Army does like to start things off right away! Now remember, Hubbs and I haven't had any alchy for a while, we are both on TSFL. So there was a serious buzz right off the bat. lol.. good thing that there were another 3 hours of speeches and toasts still to come.
Alright to the prep work. I did end up rag rolling my hair (I have pictures and could do a tutorial on how I do it, comment below and let me know if you would like to see that). I pulled my hair back into a french twist and just hated how it looked, so for about 20 minutes I just pulled and pinned, then took out my hair. I finally felt that leaving a few strands down on the side and then pulling the rest back looked the best. My bangs were the worst, I ended up curling them and teasing them, then rolling them into a fake victory roll. Again it was totally by accident but the final outcome was pleasant. I used the flower pins (left over from the dress flowers) and then hairspayed till everything felt like cement. There is nothing worse than hair falling down halfway through the evening!

 

 *These are pre make-up, so no judging!! lol)*

My dress you already know about from previous entries (here, and here, oh and here). My earrings I picked up on clearance at Kohl's, my shoes are "michael" and I got them at broadway shoes. My wrap is vintage mink and my bag is vintage. That's most everything that I had on me.
So now for the fun part, pictures!!!

Here it is, finished makeup, dress and hair. I wore my bolero for most of the evening (it seemed inappropriate to show too much skin, even though I was the only woman there not doing it)





We took a couple fun ones. My hubby requested these and they are totally his idea, but I have to admit, I had fun taking them. (do you see his face??? he is loving it!)






And last but not least, the pictures of us together. Told you he looked hot!! The car isn't ours, Hubbs insisted that I take a picture in front of it. :0) The evening turned wet, windy and cold. So I am glad I planned ahead and had my stole with me.

Hope you enjoyed the trip into our evening out. Please feel free to comment below and let me know what you think!

Thank You!!

I just wanted to post a quick thank you to everyone for continuing to check out my little blog. I enjoy adding new things (like my newest journal entry here). I love that people have met each other and support each others journey to better health.

I am so inspired from everyone. Thanks for the support on my journey. As well as the compliments on my sewing projects. (I added some new, well old projects but new pictures, here) I promise to take pictures of everything finally put together for the ball. It's this weekend!! EEEEKKKK!!

Anyways, thank you guys for coming back, following me and the amazing outpouring of love!!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!

Recipe Yumminess!!

I have posted some new recipes on my pages. They are all on the left hand sidebar. I added pancakes here. I added new hot sandwiches here. I have added dinner (lean and green stuff) here. I'm working on pictures to go with it all. As well as perfecting a couple new recipes choices. I hope you like what I have added. Feel free to leave comments or questions!

Oh Shellac How I Love Thee..

I posted about my first experience with Shellace here. I told you that my bestie and I went and got Shellac nails done for my th#$%$ birthday. I loved it, it was so pretty and shiny and lasted for something like 15 days without chipping. I finally took it off simply because of the grow out.

We decided that we couldn't live without doing these more often and so took the plunge in getting the set up for ourselves. Its not cheap, but pays for itself after about 4 applications.

I have done in only twice so far and am surprised at how well it has lasted. I haven't had two plus weeks worth of wear yet, but after a weekish I only had one nail start to chip off. My left pointer finger. Now I'm left handed AND had scrubbed the floors and walls in my house that week. So I was impressed any of it stayed on. You can see how it looked, not too bad right?

My right hand still was rockin and didn't have any chips till about day 13. I ended up taking off all of it and starting over to try out a new color anyways. Speaking of color, This color is called Rock Royalty. The bottle doesn't do it justice at all. Its almost an eggplant color (one of my fav. colors ever!) and has blue and pink sparkle to it. I wish I could zoom in a thousand times so you could see it, its really pretty. I don't do glitter, but the sparkle adds more shine and catches the light every once and a while. I would be moving my hand in the light and get side tracked playing with the sparkle on my nails, lol.

I have the ball coming up and so did some experimenting last weekend. I redid my nails with the red color that I have. Its called Hollywood. Its a great bright tomato red. It doesn't have a orange or blue hue to it.. its right in the middle. I adore it, it looks great with all my vintage dresses. But as I am going for a little darker red for the ball I mixed the Rock Royalty with the Hollywood and came up with a pretty combo. Well at least I think so.

I did only Hollywood on my toes and decided it was too light. So I did one coat of Rock Royalty and then two coats of Hollywood on my hands. Its not a huge change, but it lowers the red glamour enough to make it look good with the dress and accents for the ball. You can see them next to each other.

So far this color has been on for about 6 days. I am still happy with it overall. My toes look like I just had them done. My fingers are good too. The usual chip on the left pointer finger is growing. But I still feel like I am learning how to do this correctly to make it last longer.

R.I.P.

Today we gather to say goodbye to a loved friend. She helped create yummy recipes that filled our tummies when they rumbled. She heated up at a flick of a switch. She led a busy life, getting used at least 3-5 times a week.

We lay her to rest today, sending her off to be melted down to be a water bottle or tire. Towards the end of her life she did burn a corner yet left another uncooked. She was scratched and so everything stuck to her surface. But she was a good little machine and always did her best.

Rest in peace, you will be missed... (sniffle, sniffle)

Updates

I just updated my journal for this past week worth of fun. :0)

I also have moved around my recipes into their own pages. I don't remember if I let you guys know about that change, but I have them organized so they make more sense to me. I also have a couple new recipes that I will be adding this week. Yummy stuff that I just adore and I hope you like too.

Wishing you all a happy week of reaching for your Optimum Health!

~My Puppies~

I have had a few requests for info on my pups and where I got them. So this post is for you. :0) I have two dogs, a boy and a girl, both are a little over one year. They both are Great Pyrenees. And yes, no, no, no and yes. There you go!! LOL Alright let me give you some background first.

I have always wanted dogs, the more the merrier! But our lifestyle up to this point hasn't been a fair one for a dog. While in Germany we decided that it was time and started to look around. But as luck would have it, Europeans don't adopt to Americans.. they don't like that we see animals as easily forgotten as an old clothing lineup. Now, I personally see my pets as an extension of my family and would never leave them behind. I would make arrangements and preparations for moving them if need be. But long story short, we were going to have to wait till we got back to the states.

We always wanted big dogs, bernards, great danes, pyrs, newfies.. anything BIG. We researched (and by saying "we" I mean I did.. obsessively actually) and found that Pyr's have a longer life span, better health and the best demeanor of all the breeds we looked at.

I fully recommend that anyone looking for any dog should research what they are getting into. True they are easily to take care of as puppies, and are super cute. But that wears off and if the final product is going to top out at 150 pounds.. you better be prepared! Its your fault not the dogs, that you cant handle them and or didn't take the steps to train them. Anyhoo.. off that soap box.

We decided pyrs were for us, knowing the pitfalls as well as the selling points. We started contacting rescues in the area that we were going to be moving into. Every single one turned us down. Yep, it would seem that we are military and military is unsuitable for big dogs (I think Roonie and Sophie would say otherwise). So I turned to breeders. The dogs are more expensive, of course. But they come from proven and tested lines of healthy dogs. I found and talked to a breeder that I loved and hoped to get a dog from her soon after we had settled. Unfortunately she didn't have any puppies available and wouldn't for some time. But she knew of a breeder she has gotten some of her dogs from who had a boy left from a litter. The poor runt, left overs... awwww sniffle, sigh...

In walks Roonie to our lives. The moment the hubb's saw Roonie, he announced we weren't leaving without the fluffball. <insert awww>

Roonie came to us at 27pounds and he was 9 weeks old. Small and gentle were never in his vocabulary. The is the goofiest, sweetest moose you will ever meet.

Now fast forward about 10 months and right before we headed out of town for vacation we got a call that there was a female pyr who was in need of a home.

 *Now side note about pyr's you cant have two males living in the same house unless they are always separated. They would fight to the death, seriously, they would kill each other trying to take the dominate role. And neither would back down, it just isn't in them to back down. So if you want more than one (they are like chips you cant have just one) then you create a harem for you little man. :0) *

 We had plans on getting another puppy (or two or three if I have my way) and we needed girls. So this call was exciting, she was untrained, and under weight. The family that had her just wasn't equipped to take care of her. Again, people, please I beg of you do your research before you dive into having a dog!!! So Sophie came to live with us when we got back from vaca. She was super shy, skinny, and in need of some medical attention. But she was the sweetest soul you will ever meet!! She doesn't expect attention, unlike my moose, she will sit in the corner and just wait... poor thing. She is just.... sweet, its the best description for her.

So another jump to now.. Both dogs are just over a year old. Roonie is about 115pd now and still growing. They will both grow till about 4 years of age. Sophie is catching up and doing great. She weighs in at 87 pounds.

I started Roonie in training from the first day we got him home and he has done amazingly. Sophie started once I got her too and she is doing good also. She is a struggle sometimes, she reverts to fear at the most awkward times. But those times are farther and farther apart the longer she is with us.

The two dogs are the best of friends, always playing, sleeping or laying on each other. They fight like siblings and are a huge source of entertainment for us. Can you tell I love my dogs???

 Ok, props to Sam Denney who took these photos. She rocks and I cant wait to work with her again!! (Denney Photography)

And to Kirsten Sherman, my dog trainer and long lost sister. I love who you are and the talented person I am blessed to be around. (Kirsten's Tumblr Site )

Keep up the good work ladies!!