Sunday Social ~ Back to Basics

Happy Sunday! Time to link up with some fabulous ladies, Ashley and Neely for Sunday Social.

1. What is the name of your blog and how long have you been blogging?

~ My blog is named Green Fashionista since I'm environmentally conscious and I love all things fashion. I started this blog back in the spring of 2010 while I was planning my wedding and only did like 2 posts and this little blog was kind of neglected for about a year until I started blogging regularly in the spring of 2011. I'd say I've only really gotten the hang of what I'm doing on here in the past 6 months which has been exciting. 

2. Why do you blog?

~ I love having an online scrapbook of sorts of my life. It's great to look back and see some of our fun weekends, fashion and beauty purchases, home decor, or a great recipe I tried that I wanted to share with everyone. I also love some of the friendships that have cultivated from blogging. I used to swear I would NEVER get a twitter account, and blogging has introduced me to the wonderful world of twitter and instagram and I now love both and am "meh" about Facebook. 

3. What is the first blog you ever followed?

~ I'm not sure, but I would assume it was a fellow knottie or nestie since I was completely submerged in wedding planning.

4. What is your favorite post you wrote in 2012?

~ What's in my beach bag 

~ Tis the Season

~ Fall Wedding Weekend in Connecticut 

5. What are your blogging goals for 2013?

~ I'd like to start doing more product reviews and OOTD's on the blog and cut down on how many linkups I do. I usually try to balance all the linkups with my own posts, but I'd like to start outweighing the linkups with my own material *she says as she's in the midst of a fabulous linkup post* lol

6.  Name your top 3 favorite blogs

~ There is no way I can narrow this down to just 3! But I'll list some of my favs:

Katie @ Lady Million

Kristen @ Love, Lipstick, and Pearls

Emily @ Martinis & Bikinis

Allison @ PinkLouLou

Melissa @ Scribble n Dash

Lauren @ Wayfares & Worksheets

Pam @ Yes it is, Kevin

Nikki @ makeupHER

Jenn @ Party of One

Helene @ Helene in Between

Cami @ First Day of My Life 

Kristen @ Joyful Ramblings

I definitely recommend checking out all of these lovely ladies!

Happy Sunday!

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Sephora's New Naked Purchases

I was only planning on spending $50 on my last Sephora purchase, buuuuuut I called Sephora since for some reason they don't tell you where you stand on your VIB status on their site to find out how far away I was from renewing my VIB status for the upcoming year. Turned out I still needed to spend another $94 so I had a decision to make. Be a good girl and only spend what I was originally going to spend, or spend double to renew my VIB status for the year. Guess what I did? Yep... I spent double 0:-)

I picked up:

~ Naked Basics Palette

~ Naked Nails set

~ Sephora Collection Double-Ended Smudge Eye Liner

~ NARS Albatross

~ Sephora Collection Pro Concealer Brush

~ Sephora Collection Wide Tooth Comb

I was super excited to try the new Urban Decay Naked products. I've loved both the original Naked palette and Naked 2 so I knew I'd have to have the Basics palette and the nail set as well. You know... the necessities... 

4 out of the 6 shadows are new and exclusive to this palette

~ Venus

~ Foxy

~ Walk of Shame

~ Naked 2

~ Faint

~ Crave

Not only are the colors pretty and great for every day, but the packaging itself is also very pretty! It's great for your 9:00-5:00 look or can be blended together to create nighttime looks as well. 

I also had to have the new Naked Nails set which is a neutral nail set that compliments their infamous eyeshadow palettes. I can't wait to use all of them!

So far, I've only used Hustle and it's beautiful!

I promise I don't have giant hands, the bottles are just teeny tiny ;)

NARS Albatross

I picked this up after seeing it on Katie's blog being used as a highlighter to get that perfect glow. I haven't tried it yet since I just received it, but I'll definitely be trying it for our next night out and let you know how I like it :)

Last but certainly not least, I picked up Sephora Collection's Pro Concealer Brush

I plan on using it to help apply Benefit's Erase Paste under my eyes to cover up my hereditary dark circles. Seriously, no matter how much sleep I get I still have those horrendous dark things under my eyes making me look like I was up half the night. Blah!! Thanks mom! 

Next, I'm going to have to try out Naked Flushed...

I first heard about it over at Her Late Night Cravings 

It's not available at Sephora yet (boo!) but you can purchase it off of Urban Decay's site. I'm going to wait until Sephora gets it to rack up those Beauty Insider points ;)

Have you tried any of the new UD Naked products?

NARS Sephora Urban Decay

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What I'm Loving Wednesday

Finally feel like I'm getting back into a routine albeit this full 5 day work week has been brutal! Celebrating this beautiful hump-day by linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday.

~ I'm loving the planning process for H's 30th b-day celebration. We're going to go on a fantastic trip and then come home and have a party to celebrate! Nothing but the best for the best! :)

~ I'm loving Sean as The Bachelor! He's too sweet to not find his soulmate, I just hope he ends up with another sweetie and not a biz-nitch that'll break his heart.

~ I'm loving the weather this week.......... sunny and low 80's. I knew I left Connecticut for a reason 0:-)

~ I'm loving my new Naked Basics palette (review coming soon!)

~ I'm loving my recent finds on Pinterest:

LC's Perfect Curls

~ I'm always loving my amazing H

What are YOU loving today?

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Curling Hair the Easy Way

I have unsuccessfully been trying to curl my own hair and give myself some beautiful waves that so many seem to be able to achieve so effortlessly. Well.. I even went out and bought a new 1" curling iron and one or two curls will come out great and then the rest are an epic fail. They either don't curl right, hold the curl, have an ugly clamp mark from the curling iron, or all of the above. So, I decided to order a set of hot rollers.

Conair Xtreme Instant Heat Rollers can be found here.

Please excuse my tired face w/o makeup :-P

I love that the rollers made it super easy to get the waves I was looking for without the clamp marks from a curling iron. I've also thought about purchasing a curling wand which will also eliminate the dreaded "clamp mark" from curling irons.

This set is great to create effortless curls/waves for a night out without the dreaded clamp mark.

Linkin' up with the fabulous Helene for Tell Me About it Tuesday, hop on over and join us :)

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Lauren Conrad's "Beauty" Book Review

You all know how much I love Lauren Conrad, so it's no surprise that I loved her latest book "Beauty". It was similar to her book "Style" except this book focused on hair, makeup, nails, fitness & food, and skincare.

I loved how she brought her own personal experiences into the book including beauty flops she called "Lesson Learned" like bad haircuts or extreme diets leading up to a big photo shoot and then getting very ill after over-indulging once the shoot was over with.

My favorite parts of the book:

~ Everyday hair 

I've always wanted to achieve such effortless looking waves for my everyday hair, but I'm a total dunce with a curling iron. So, I recently bought hot rollers, and hope to post a review soon. But... for those of you who aren't as clumsy as I am with a curling iron and can actually achieve nice curls without that clamp mark in your hair (like me!) this is a great tutorial in Lauren's book. 

~ Party hair

Love this loose ponytail, it's such a great alternative to my "going to the gym" ponytail and is even party-worthy... gorgeous!

~ Fitness

Her fitness chapter felt very real to me. She doesn't claim to have a perfect body (although I beg to differ!) or to not have any selfconciousness regarding it. She talked about how she stays in shape and how she sets realistic expectations for herself and tries to keep a routine and stick with it. She also reminds us that it's ok to skip a workout every now and then. Sometimes life gets in the way or friends come to town, and it's ok! 

~ Everyday Makeup

She does a great job of breaking down her everyday makeup and nighttime/party makeup. What looks to strive for and which to stay away from. Her everyday look is similar to mine, which is wearing enough makeup to cover up dark circles/imperfections, but still looking like yourself so I loved seeing her routine step by step.

~ Tools

She listed out which tools for makeup and hair you should have as a part of your collection, which ones to splurge on and which ones you can just pick up at Target or the drugstore. I was pleasantly surprised that I already have a lot of her "must-haves" but there are definitely some items listed that are missing from my collection that I'll have to pick up. 

This is definitely a great book for all us ladies and is an easy read. It's a great referral source if you're ever looking for advice on how to do your hair or makeup whether it be for the office or for a night out on the town. I found it to be even better than her "Style" book which I also enjoyed.

Lauren Conrad

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Sunday Social

Happy 1st Sunday of 2013! Linking up with Ashley and Neely for the 1st Sunday Social of the year :)

1. Do you plan to change your eating habits for the new year?

~ I'm not usually one to make resolutions, and it's not a resolution per se but I really would like to start eating healthier and cleaner as I mentioned in last week's post.

2. Any workout tips to get us back into shape after the Holidays?

~ This was the first holiday season I felt like I was particularly bad in the over-indulging department. I feel like the whole month of December was dedicated to various parties and get-togethers. So, needless to say I was over-eating and drinking a lot of high-calorie holiday drinks for several weeks. Thankfully, I kept up with my workout routine for the most part so I didn't gain too much, but I did gain about 3-4 pounds that I'm working on shedding.

So far, this week I only ate salad or soup for lunch instead of my usual leftovers or lean cuisines packed full of sodium. I've also gotten back into my workout routine full swing which includes 3-4 workouts at the gym during the week which is 30 minutes of cardio plus some weights. I also still do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred at home on the weekends and one evening during the week after work. That workout is NO JOKE! After the first time, you'll be sore in places you didn't know muscles existed but if you keep at it you'll love that workout and the results it brings, I promise!

3. What is your favorite thing you did over the holidays?

~ All the time spent with friends at various parties and get-togethers. 

4. What is something you hope that you accomplish in 2013 that you did not do in 2012?

~ Tackle some more debt, we're making great headway so I'd like to hopefully eliminate it this year. 

5. Name 3 things you are excited about this year and why

~ Celebrating H's 30th birthday on a cruise and a big celebration when we get back :)

~ My cousin's wedding

~ Hopefully starting our family

Hop on over to Ashley's or Neely's blogs and link up with us :)

30 Day Shred

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Friday Randoms

Happy Friday everyone! Even with that extra day off in the middle of the week, I'm super relieved that the weekend is here *Cheers*

Update on my tooth:

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I had to go to the dentist since my tooth where I had a root canal back in high school cracked back open on Wednesday while I was eating my lunch. Let's just say chewing slowly on one side of your mouth is NOT FUN. I have seriously never been more thankful for dental insurance in my life!

The appointment went well, and they took out the broken part of my tooth so that I can be more comfortable until....... the extraction. Yep.. my tooth is dunzo! It turns out I never had a crown put on my tooth back when my root canal was done because I wasn't an adult yet. (not sure why that makes a difference, I was 17 so was almost there physically) So, it was only a matter of time before the tooth broke back open and causing this whole mess. My options are to extract it and have an implant put in which costs upwards of $4,000! I jokingly told H that if I was going to spend that much money on "implants" that it would be to help out my girls. So, needless to say I am going to have to have my poor tooth pulled and there will just have to be a hole left in my mouth. Thankfully it's all the way in the back and no one will ever see it... but I can't believe I'm going to be down one of my toofers! *tear*

I take such good care of my teeth and the dentist even said himself that I have great teeth aside from this one broken one in the back that apparently wasn't patched up properly back in the day. Boo to dental work and boo to their extreme costs!!!

Onto a much lighter note... my bff's birthday is next week and I planned on sending her a copy of Lauren Conrad's new book "Beauty" that I've been raving about recently but alas it's sold out on Target.com so I decided to send her the Marc Jacobs pouch in rose gold which can be found here.

FYI the Neiman Marcus collection is now 70% off and it ends on the 5th! So, if you had your eye on anything but was hesitant to buy due to price go snag those items now before they're taken off the shelf!

Happy Friday!

Marc Jacobs Target

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It's OK Thursday

Happy Friday Eve! Yesterday felt like Monday, but I'm not complaining that we're already at Thursday, whoo hoo! Linkin' up with Amber and Neely for It's OK Thursday.

It's OK that.....

~ I already requested the day after the super bowl and July 5th off.. yep planning ahead for once this year! July 4th falls on a Thursday this year... so do yourself a favor and request the 5th off and make yourself a nice little 4 day weekend instead of having a day off, going back in for a day, and then it's the weekend. Thank me later!

~ I was so pumped to start off the new year, and yesterday my tooth cracked and it was only January 2nd! I had a root canal back in 2000 and now the tooth has reopened. Will find out how much this will cost/hurt me at the dentist this afternoon. Gosh I hope it's a quick repair and not thousands of dollars in dental work. This chica doesn't have that kind of cash!

Yipes!

~ I'm upset my NYE manicure is already chipping booooo!

~ It was awkward-funny watching "Hope Springs" last night... super cute movie! Love Meryl Streep!

~ I'm depressed that we starting taking down the Christmas decorations. The house always looks so naked for a while after :(

~ I still am and probably always will be scared of the dark :-P

What's OK in your life today?

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Clear Shampoo Review

I received my last ever free Target Beauty Bag last month, and it was full of great samples. One of which I fell in love with, and that was the Clear Shampoo and Conditioner. I almost never love the samples enough from those beauty bags or from Sephora to go out and purchase the full size versions, but this time I did.

In the coupon book included in the beauty bag was a coupon for the full size version of Clear. I love the sample because it smelled great and helped my hair to feel cleaner and stronger. So, I decided to pick up a bottle at Target and I've continued loving it. My hair even still smelled fresh after sitting by the fire pit for a few hours and sleeping on it! 

I'm in dire need of a visit to my hairdresser, but until I can get over there this shampoo has been helping my scalp to feel cleaner, my hair to smell fresher, and for it to feel stronger even though it's pretty damaged. 

Have you tried it yet? If so, what did you think?

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Happy Sparkly New Year!

We were the two crazy kids who had to make it to not one but two New Years Eve parties last night, and we actually pulled it off!

We started off the night at our friends's masquerade party and left around 11:00 to come back home and walk over to our neighbor's party which we thought would be perfect so we'd be off the roads before midnight.

A very wise person recently told me there's no such thing as too much sparkle around the holidays....

~ I wore my gold sparkly top with my new blue sequined skirt from Express, my new JS sparkly bangles, and my gold sparkly heels.

~ I made a ranch spinach dip to bring to the party

~ I picked up a New Year headband and horn blowy-thingys

The masquerade theme was such a great idea... everyone looked fabulous!

Then... it was off to party #2

They put our Christmas party to shame! They had a dj, a bartender, and a crap-ton of food! We even did a soul train line... haven't done one of those in forever so I showed off some of my sweet dance moves. 

It was nice to not worry about being out on the roads after midnight :)

Oooh and my gold eye makeup held up all night... yay for Urban Decay Eye Primer Potion! 

I hope everyone had a safe and fun new year and here's to 2013!

OOTD Urban Decay

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