Get Your Supplies Ready

     Who's ready for some How-To Videos? I am, I am...well almost. Early next week we will finally be moving into our permanent home. We have been staying at a temporary place while they finish getting ours ready. Once we are there and unpacked I plan on starting the videos.
     I will be focusing on beauty. There are a lot of MUAs who do great costume make-up, and I really respect their talent. But I have never lived, and never plan to live in NYC or L.A. I do mostly weddings and sweet 16's and such. Where people are wanting to look like the best version of themselves, not like a completely different person. Also I want to do tutorials that anyone can do. Any one from people who already know how to do their makeup and just want to learn some new moves to people who have no clue about what they are doing. Of course, I will be sharing all of my tips on hairstyling too, and the same idea applies. I want to help everyone, from other professionals to people who are clueless.
     I don't really know, yet, where I am going to start. If you have any suggestions or specific things you want to see or know, let me know.
   
     I figured, that today, I would show everyone the tools that I use. Maybe it can help you to see what you are missing out of your own tool box, or give you an idea of where to start.

Make-Up Brushes

I have a couple sets of make up brushes, but these are the ones that I use personally.

From Left to Right

All MAC Brushes

150 Powder Brush

129 Blush Brush

190 Foundation Brush

252 Concealer Brush

Left to Right

All MAC Brushes Except the Top One

224 Fluffy Brush, Used to apply shadow all over the lid, and used for highlight

217 Large Flat Brush, Also can be used for the lid

272 Soft Large Angle Brush, Used for crease

228 Small Flat Brush, Used to smudge eyeliner

266 Small Angle Brush, Used for eyebrows and liner

219 Blending Brush, Used to blend shadows together

The Top Brush is a cheap Brow Brush, I only use the Right side. I use it to brush my brows into place.

Hair Brushes

Aveda Paddle Brush

Large Ceramic Round Brush

w/ a good grip on the end

Mason Pearson

     I hope that everyone who entered my blog contest and then sent me an email received their gift. I know that a couple of you did for sure. Please let me know if you got it!

<3 Andi

A new year, a new beginning.

     I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday, and a great New Year's Eve. I wish only the best to you and your family in 2010. It's going to be a great year.

     Believe it or not, we are leaving in less than one week. I am sure you believe it, I am the one who doesn't. When something like this happens to someone else it is very believable; it happens, then you continue your life unchanged. When these crazy, surreal things are happening in your own life it is hard to even grasp the concept, let alone go through all of the things that need to be done beforehand.
     It doesn't help that we have been floating around between Detroit and Miami for the last two weeks, with little routine other than my mother in law yelling to us that some sort of fried Cuban food is ready a couple of times a day. Pastelitos mean it's breakfast(ish), Cubanitos mean lunch(ish) and Friteritas mean it's dinnertime(ish). This traveling has let me live in denial of the inevitable move that is lingering in the back of my mind, and now less that one week away.
     Now that the week-to-go mark has past there are little things, here and there, that remind me of my reality. Mini panic attacks ensue; shortness of breath followed by my heart trying to leap out of my chest and then the need to sit down.
     Don't get me wrong, I am over the moon to be moving to a different country. I can't even begin to imagine all of the new experiences we will have. I have, probably, the same amount of moments during the day that I can barely contain myself, I just want to be there now. I really am very excited.
     I didn't make any resolutions this year because I feel like my life is going to be so different, that I don't know where to start. I have, however, made a list of goals that I want to achieve sometime in the future.
          LEARN GERMAN, that's the big one.
          TRAVEL, we have already started planning trips.
          GET MORE EXERCISE, this one won't be hard, we won't have a car so we'll be walking everywhere.
          EAT HEALTHIER, this will be very hard, but I will just have to cook mostly at home.
          START TO MAKE HOW-TO VIDEOS FOR MY BLOG, self explanatory.

     Hopefully, my next post will be from Germany. I doubt I will get one in during the craziness of my last couple of days in Atlanta. I still can't believe this is really happening. I'll see you all on the flip side!

Lost in Translation

     So after more than 12 hours of travel we finally arrived in Erlangen, Bavaria, yesterday morning. The rest of the day yesterday was spent trying not to fall asleep. When you are trying to adjust to the time change, the best thing to do is to sleep on the plane as much as possible. I got about 4 hours. Then when you arrive, it seemed like 6 am but it was noon here, stay up until a proper time in your current location. So we finally fell asleep around 10pm (German time), but we had only had about 4 hours of sleep in the 35 hour prior. Basically I was in a fog yesterday.
     Today is my first real day here. So far I have learned how to ask for still water instead of sparkling, Stillen Wasser, how to order a coffee, Milk Cafe (I know, this one is impressive), and that German pillows suck!
     I love learning languages. I think that is what I am most excited about. I want to speak German, like NOW! Obviously it isn't that easy. I think my love of language combined with my strict grammatical upbringing (my dad is a grammar nazi) has led me to strange love of finding mis-translations.
     Yesterday in Paris's Charles De Gualle airport, I found myself taking a picture of a sign written in both French and English, indicating the ingredients of a sandwich. I warn that I have a little 12 year old boy that sometimes takes over my sense of humor. I hope it was supposed to say duck. Otherwise the French have strange taste in food.

     But this isn't my first time taking a picture like this. When I lived in Miami, finding a sign that was mis-written in English made my day. I guess I am easy to please. Here is my favorite picture of this phenomenon taken in Miami.

Out of Order :D

     Tomorrow we go apartment hunting with an agent that JP's company is providing. Look for an update to follow that trip around the city. I will be sure to take pictures!

<3 from Germany,
Andi

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for.

Here are a couple of things that I am thankful for.

Harles

Chop Chop

JP, my hubby

Margo, my sister

Georgia

My Parents

I am so lucky to have so many things to be thankful for, that I couldn't even list them all here.

<3 Andi

The Ball Has Started Rolling...

     Picture me as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the huge round stone barreling behind me. The stone is the impending move that is coming whether I am ready or not, and it is rolling faster and faster. Maybe it's not this dramatic, but this is how I feel. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. It is just very hard for me to comprehend all of this at once.
     This is my crazy schedule for the next couple weeks. This coming Saturday I am driving down to Miami to see JP's family. Right after Turkey Day we fly out of Miami, leaving unassuming Georgie with my in-laws, to go to Germany. We will be there for one week, trying to find an apartment. This will be my first trip outside of North America. Then we fly back to Miami, pick Georgia up, and drive back to Atlanta. Then I have two weeks to finish everything I need to get done, packing things, donating things, selling things, throwing things away. Next we drive up to Michigan to see my family for Christmas and then it is back to Miami again to turn in JP's car to the dealership. Back to Atlanta, one more time, the movers will come the first week of January. Finally we will be in Germany for JP to start work January 11th! I feel like I held my breath the whole time I was writing that.
     The next couple of weeks will obviously be very busy for me. I originally was going to end my blog contest at the end of November but I am going to end it tomorrow night, November 18th, at midnight. That way I can send out the prizes before I leave for my house hunting trip. Anyone who still wants to get in on the contest should do so now or forever hold your peace.
     This won't be my last post of the year, (I hope) but I wanted to wish everyone a great Holiday Season! I can't believe how fast it has snuck up on us.

Saturday Night in the City

     Lately we have been spending Saturday nights at home, watching a movie and cooking in. This weekend we were invited by a couple in our building to go to dinner, we'll call them Mark and Angela. 

     Now I am going to be very honest, these aren't our favorite people. We met them over the summer, and between now and then we have gone to dinner with them a couple of times but every time has been just ok. No real connection to these people. Every time we see these two there is always just something strange about them, especially Mark.

     So you are probably asking yourself, why would we even choose to go out with them? After weeks of just sitting at home, I jumped at the opportunity to get my husband to take me into the city. Not only that, they suggested to go to our favorite restaurant. So I figured, why not? Well I will tell you why we shouldn't have in a minute. 

     First let me get to my "Look" for the night. I decided to do something totally different than what I normally do with my make up and I curled my hair. 

     To curl my hair like this, I parted my hair in one inch vertical sections from the parting at the top to the bottom hairline. Then I took these large sections and wrapped them around the curling iron, away from my face, without opening the clamp. I did both sides and then the back. If there were shorter layers that  didn't curl as well I went back over them, again, away from my face. At the very end I brushed my hair out with a paddle brush, and then took my hands, flat, one on the bottom of my hair, one on the top and smoothed the hair back down. That last step is hard for me to explain, hopefully you understand what I mean.

     For my eye makeup, I used MAC. Parfait Amour and Vibrant Grape on the lid, Graphology in the crease and Phloof as a highlight. It is a little more complicated than that so I will go through step by step. 

     After applying my foundation, concealer and powder, I applied Beige-ing Shade Stick to my entire lid and a little above. Then I blend it in with my finger. This makes a good base for the colors to stick to and makes them more vibrant. Then I took MAC brush 224 and did a nice coat of Parfait Amour all over my lid. Then next step is eyeliner. MAC Pearlglide in Molasses very close to the lash line from the center of the lid to the outside. Then I take MAC Brush 228 and smudge that all the way out so it doesn't look like a line anymore. This then acts in the same way as the Shade Stick to help the next color to show up better. Then I used MAC 266, a small angled brush and the Vibrant Grape along the lash line and blended up and in the outer V. In the outer V, I used MAC Brush 272 to blend. Then I did another coat of the liner and went over that with the Graphology and the 266 Brush, and went up into the crease with the 272. Then finally I used Phloof as the highlight and applied it with MAC Brush 219, right below my brow and to the inner corner of the eye.

     Back to the story. We got a call from the Mark saying that the restaurant we had originally planned on going to was closed for a private party that night, the whole reason I had agreed to go in the first place. Oh well, they said they were going to a different restaurant and we met them there. They had chosen to sit right next to the band. We hadn't seen these people in months and we sat there silently, all dinner, because in order to talk we had to scream. There was a whole other section of the restaurant where you could still hear the band but not as loudly. Then, any talking they did was to complain about the band.... Why did they sit there?

    Another weird thing was that they kept leaving the table to go to the bathroom, not together but at different times. Mark was acting very different after the first time and after the last time Mark got back, he just started putting on his coat without saying anything. The band had just taken a break so speech at this time was possible. JP, my husband, said, "Where are you going?" Mark said, "Getting the eff out of here." (He didn't say eff) Angela finally said that they were going to a bar down the road where she knew someone. We decided to go with them, even after the awkward dinner. I guess I figured we had come all the way into the city we might as well stay out for a little bit.  

     We get to the bar and Mark makes a big deal about being a Firefighter when they make us pay to get in. JP and I just pay for everyone to end the scene. When we get in, they leave us to go find the friend in VIP. JP and I figure we just paid to get in here so we are going to have a fun time and we start dancing. I am secretly hoping they never come back and find us... Unfortunately, they did. They had obviously been fighting she was trying to hide that she was crying, he was trying to make small talk with JP. They finally went off to talk somewhere privately. We waited probably about 10 minutes and took that as our cue to leave. 

     We almost ran to our car. It had been such an awkward night... At least I looked cute. LOL

Two Reds Don't Make it Right... and new hair for me too!

     Last night at the CMAs, two beautiful ladies unexpectedly (to me) showed up with red locks. Kellie Pickler and Nicole Kidman both took a page out of Reba's book and warmed up their blonde hues. I think that it is no secret that I love me some red hair, but that doesn't mean that I love it on everyone.

Kellie Pickler

vs.

Nicole Kidman

 

Who wore it better, hair edition.

     I think that a lot of blondes, whether they are natural blondes or bottle blondes, associate themselves with being blondes. This has nothing to do with your natural color and everything to do with the way you feel about yourself, and your personality. I am not talking about dumb blonde stereotypes either. There are many serious and very intellectual blondes, and they still consider themselves a blonde. Kellie is not one of those by any means.

     As a hairstylist, I get plenty of blondes who want to color their hair for the fall and winter to a deeper shade. It is my job to talk them out of coloring their hair all over and into doing lowlights. Why? Because a blonde will always be a blonde, and more often than not, I will see that same person in less than a month asking for highlights again. That is traumatic for your hair. Even more so, if the person has decided to go red. Red is that hardest shade to keep in the hair, but also the hardest to get out.

   

      While Nicole and Kellie both looked beautiful last night as redheads, I think there is one clear winner. Nicole. Not only is she comfortable being a redhead, she didn't change that drastically from what she had before. She is still a very light strawberry blonde. Even if she wanted to go back to blonde the process wouldn't be quite so hard. Kellie, on the other hand, went very dark compared to her old look, and I predict that the next time we see her she will be back to her usual self. I don't think she will last very long at all.  Sorry Kellie. I blame the person that did this to you.

Last and very least, is me.  I made a color change about a month ago but I never posted a picture , except for my profile picture. Now that I've had my hair cut too, I figured I should share. This is, after all, my Hair Blog. I figure now was an appropriate time, introducing two new redheads, and one who stepped away from red for now.... I will always consider myself a redhead, and it won't happen in a month, but I will always be back.

 
I am still running the contest in the post 2 below this one. You have until the end of November to enter!

Have a great hair day!
<3 Andi