wallpaper emo

I actually spent all day yesterday deep cleaning our family room. Yikes! I think I missed like the last 8 or 9 springs for the whole cleaning thing, so it was intense. However, its amazing how good it felt to come home this evening after work and see the fruits of my labor. Clutter corralled, dust bunnies evicted, carpet and upholstery cleaned. WOW! Who knew? Better than Prozac, no lie! Okay, maybe not, but seriously, it makes me want to systematically go through all of the areas of my home and do this. I have no pictures to share, but I will share a link with you that, at one time, I found very useful. I need to get back to visiting the Flylady once in a while. Her theories make sense and if you do what she says, you will have a clean, organized, well functioning home. Its a comittment, sort of like losing weight (also on my list) and getting regular exercise (another one, check!), but worth it if you can at least do at least a smidge of her suggestions. Check it out if you have time. For now, I must finish my little May Day Flower Vessels that I'm going to gift my gal pals with tomorrow. Maybe I'll be smart and take pictures to show you. And just for the record, the photo above is a Flickr file (from the incredibly talented Polly) which has nothing to do with the post, except for having one of my favorite spring flowers, lilacs, in it. Which, in my part of the world, is more like an early summer flower, but that might be splitting hairs.

Until next time,

I love this...it's so versatile and is also a great bridal combo!

Products used:
MUFE Mat Velvet+ foundation in Porcelain
MAC Prep+Prime transparent finishing powder
MAC Cork eye shadow (brows)

Urban Decay Primer Potion
NARS eye shadow duos in Kalahari and Cordura
MAC Blanc Type eye shadow
Urban Decay Liquid Liner in Perversion
Stila Eye Kajal in Onyx
MAC Plushlash in Plushblack

MAC Peachykeen powder blush
MAC Fabby lipstick




MAC dupes for the Nars shades:
Kalahari duo: Grain, Amber Lights
Cordura duo: Bronze, Romp
*These are just a few recommendations. Since both duos contain fairly common colors, there are so many similar colors you could use! :)

By now, you may have pegged me for the type of girl that would be attracted to vintage millinery flowers. If not, I can save you the trouble of figuring it out. I AM ATTRACTED TO VINTAGE MILLINERY FLOWERS. I got really into it some years ago after I attended an estate sale of an antique French fashion doll dresser (yes, there really are people who do that). This lady loved all of the beautiful antique textiles that I do-ribbonwork, millinery flowers, ribbons, wonderful fabrics, linens, and lace. She also had a huge collection of Victorian ephemera, but that's a whole other post. Anyway, to say that I had achieved antique textile Nirvana when I went to this sale was an understatement. I left happy, but broke, with bags and bags of great things, one of which was a plethora of millinery flowers. At the time, I used to set up regularly at a local antiques show, so I sold many of the flowers there. But, there are always those holdbacks. The ones that I just couldn't part with. Then, there were a few more that I had picked up along the way at various venues. All well and good, but what the heck do you do with all of those pieces? I was pretty sure I wasn't going to become a doll dresser and use them to adorn the dolls...I was pretty sure I was not going to start wearing hats and dolling them up (although maybe for a girlie tea party in my garden sometime...but, I digress). Then one day, I happened upon this cool small dress form at my local craft store (Hobby Lobby, I think). It had a distressed pink wooden top and a chicken wire like skirt. Hmmm, on went the thinking cap and in the cart went the dress form. This is what I came up with.


My girl is as pretty from the back as she is from the front. I added the ribbon "cumberbund" and lace "shawl". Many of the flowers were just stuck in through the holes and the ones that wouldn't stay for the most part were held in place with one of my favorite accessories, twisty ties. Pretty simple.



Gotta love a pretty vintage pink rose...


And a deep pink velvet rose...


I really love the pink velvet berries...


This ended up being one of my most favorite inspiration pieces. And the best part is, no vintage millinery flowers were harmed in the making of this project! I hope you enjoyed seeing it on Pink Saturday. When you have the chance, go over and visit Bev at How Sweet the Sound for loads of other fun and PINK offerings.


Until next time,

Today I went to my MAC store to check out the new Rose Romance collection in person.
Overall, the lipsticks really stood out to me. What appear to be seemingly boring colors are gorgeous and so wearable.
The lipglass and eye shadow shades were nice, but similar to stuff I already had. I decided to skip them. None really called out to me.
I also decided to skip the cheek stain. It was nice and I may eventually pick it up, but I just don't really use products like that all that often.
The beauty powders were really pretty, but only the darker shade showed up on me.
As for the See Thru Lip Colors...I was a bit disappointed. First off, they all weren't the transparent gel, stain-like shades as they were in the past. Two colors actually were not "see thru" at all, but frosted and opaque in the container. The formula is called a (translucent frost) which describes the payoff it delivers pretty accurately. On the lips they are very sheer and still behave somewhat like a stain. After sitting on the lips for a few seconds, the moisture disappears and the color is totally dry and matte with only a slight stain and a bit of frost left behind. Not much payoff, but pretty when followed by a clear gloss. Most disappointing was the small container. They used to be the same size as a lipglass. Now they are in the small containers similar to the minis in the holiday sets....and STILL $14 each.
The pigments were pretty. I already had Mutiny from a previous collection, so I picked up Circa Plum. Such a gorgeous wearable purple shade.

I also picked up some stuff not from the collection, so don't get confused if you see some items out of place in the pictures :)

A review of the MUFE HD foundation, turned into a little showdown with the MUFE Mat Velvet+ over the past few months.



Product Info:
MUFE HD Invisible Cover Foundation $40 (I'm shade 118)

MUFE Mat Velvet+ Foundation $34 (I'm shade 30/Porcelain)

Okay, I don't know if its just the hint of impending spring or what, but I'm feeling restless in my decor. I've always loved my home, small though it is, but after almost 10 years in the same place, I'm feeling like its time for a change. I've been getting inspired from places like Pottery Barn for my family room and am leaning towards darkish chocolate (maybe milk chocolate) walls for my "pretty room" otherwise known as the living room or, as it was called in the Edwardian era, the "entry hall". I'm also getting anxious to renovate our home office and rip up that hideous carpet upstairs and rearrange my son's room, and...okay, you see where this is going. And then there's the studio we are building. Now that, I envision as a Nordic French kinda fusion. As illustrated in Franske stemninger på nordisk vis, a beautiful book printed in Danish only which has so many stunning pictures, you don't need to read it. Although if you could read Danish, it would be handy. The name translates to "French Atmosphere in the Nordic Way" and it is a very pretty combo. Sigh...off to pay some bills. Reality, you know? Anybody else out there feeling restless?

Until next time,

Products used:
MAC
Bare Canvas Paint
Lemon Chiffon Shadestick
Ricepaper eye shadow
Fascinating Eye Kohl
Vanilla eye shadow
Samoa Silk eye shadow
Rule eye shadow
Stila Eye Kajal-Onyx
Bee Luscious Lashes Mascara
(MAC Cork eye shadow-brows)

MAC Solar Riche bronzing powder
NARS Madly blush
MAC Gel lipstick
Smile Dazzleglass







Video tutorial here:

I'm a little late posting this on the blog, I know! Since some of you have requested pictures of the actual style, I figured this would be an easier way for you to see them! I'm honestly not a professional where hair is concerned (haha, if you couldn't tell), so if I can pull this off, you can too!


















Products used:
Hot Tools 1" Ceramic/Tourmaline Curling Iron
Chi 44 Iron Guard (heat protector)

Buy the one I used OR any ONE of these and enter the COUPON CODE: TIFFANYDSILK
Hot Tools Ceramic 3/4" Curling Iron
Hot Tools Ceramic 1-1/4" Curling Iron
Hot Tools "Big Bumper" Ceramic 1-1/2" Curling Iron

and get this item for FREE ($8.95 Value) *if you enter the promo code*
Biosilk Silk Therapy


Watch the step-by-step tutorial here:

Happy Pink Saturday! I don't know about where you live, but where I live, we had a very mild winter and are now "enjoying" a very snowy spring. Today is very gray and cold, so not much good for taking pictures. I decided to go shopping from my armchair and share with you some of my favorite things from some of my favorite webshops.

The first two photos are from Our Cottage Garden-can't blame a girl for a little shameless self promotion, can you?

My friend Denise makes these gorgeous mini wreaths/tiaras from vintage millinery. They've been very successful for her and they usually get snapped up as soon as she puts them on the site. This is one of my favorites.

A pretty box of pink ribbon and trims. Yummy, yummy!

So by now, a lot of you probably have already heard about this sale. It's been posted on at least 3 blogs I follow, but I HAD to share it as well because there are deals too good to miss!

Item 1 contains 19 items: 11 tube lipglosses and 8 trio eye shadows. $27.00
Item 2 contains 30 items: 20 double-sided eye pencils and 10 liquid eyeliners. $22.00
Item 3 contains 30 pairs of lashes! $24.00
Item 4 contains 30 items: 15 Diamond Sparkle Lipglosses and 15 Single Eyeshadows $41.25
Liquid Makeup (Glass Bottle): Each shade (7 in all) sold separately for only $1.40 each

These prices are insane for the amount of product you get. Because I can't resist a good sale, I purchased items 1, 2, 3, and 1 of each of the foundation shades. Honestly, I only purchased item 1 because of the squeeze tube lipglosses. Perfect for my kit. I'm not crazy about the eye shaodw trios usually so I'll probably give most of them away. Item 2 looked awesome mainly because of the pencil liners (the colorful side). They look like gorgeous colors. Only bad thing is that I'm going to have 20 black liners on the other side of them...haha. Item 3 was a no-brainer. False lashes are expensive and these look like awesome ones! ...and 30 pairs of them!?! Insane. I was hesitant about purchasing the foundation because I really like to use good quality foundations in my kit and I've never tried these before. But to spend only $10.50 on the entire shade range? Sold.

I believe the sale lasts until April 30th.

Thoughts? Wishlists?? GO :)

So as some of you may already know, most MAC stores and counters have released the Double Dazzle collection early. The release date was originally set for April 30th I believe. As far as I know they should be available online on the 28th. In addition to some of the older shades we know and love, this collection introduces 7 new colors as well. I purchased 4 from this new release and am planning on going back for the other 2 LE shades I didn't get- Utterly Posh and Stop! Look! (there were 3 total LE shades, I purchased the other-Goldyrocks). And now for your viewing pleasure...the swatches!