I’m spending Christmas Eve with my family in the East Bay. Hope you’re having a nice night.
Christmas Eve Scenes
12 Days of Giveaways: Two Ways to Win a Birds Over Arches Small Natalie Cosmetics Case From Kate Spade (an $88 Value)!
WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Christie Wright! Congratulations, Christie! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
A few tenets I live by…
- Husky tabbies make everything better
- Whatever you do, don’t date the DJ (DON’T DO IT!)
- If you’re going to accessorize, your accessories might as well be cute 🙂
And speaking of that (the accessories), imagine all of the adventures that you and your makeup could embark upon in 2013 with the prize in today’s Christmas Eve edition of 12 Days of Giveaways, the Kate Spade Birds Over Arches Small Natalie Cosmetics Case (an $88 value).
The deets…
- Printed, coated poplin with matching trim
- Zip-around cosmetic bag
- 14-karat light gold-plated hardware
- Interior pocket
- Wipeable, durable nylon lining
- Patterns vary, making each piece unique
- 4.7″h x 7.2″w x 5.3″d
This thing was built for adventure! — so don’t let it languish with its destiny unfulfilled…
Are you ready to change this bag’s future for the better??
I hope so, because it’s day 10 of 12 Days of Giveaways on Makeup and Beauty Blog (TIP: click here and scroll down the page to enter the other ongoing giveaways). 🙂
- One (1) Birds Over Arches Small Natalie Cosmetics Case from Kate Spade valued at $88.
- There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, when was the last time you climbed a tree? Are you wearing a fragrance today, and if you are, which one? What’s your stance on pastel nails? What gadgets and gizmos (aka technology) do you usually have with you when you’re out and about? Favorite hair accessories (or the ones you wear most often)? How would you describe your natural hair? — you get the idea.
- Second, you can enter by following me on
Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
- Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a Birds Over Arches Small Natalie Cosmetics Case From Kate Spade (an $88 value)! http://bit.ly/RPejGX
- The deadline to enter is Wednesday, December 26, 2012 at 11:59PM (PST).
- Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
- A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
- Contest is open to individuals in the United States who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
- Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
- The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Don’t even think about leaving to get that second cup of cocoa (or eggnog) before you enter these other ongoing giveaways (if you haven’t already). Including this one, that’s three different MBB giveaways you could enter right now.
- Two Ways to Win an Allure Best of Beauty Gift Basket (an $83 Value)! — Closes Tuesday, 12/25/12 at 11:59 p.m. PST
- Two Ways to Win a Neutrogena Winter Skin Rx Gift Basket (a $127 Value)! — Closes Monday, 12/24/12 at 11:59 p.m. PST
Whatever you’re doing tonight, have fun. 🙂
WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Christie Wright! Congratulations, Christie! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 251
It’s go time!
Merry Christmas Eve. I’m just here taking care of some last-minute odds and ends before heading over to my parents’ house for our annual family Christmas Eve celebration. On my side of the fam, we celebrate tonight. On El Hub’s side, we celebrate tomorrow morning, so it’s almost like a two-day affair.
Sweet. 🙂
I still have about 101 things left to do before leaving (haven’t hardly wrapped any gifts yet, ARRRRGHHHHH!), but the Monday Poll is kind of like its own Makeup and Beauty Blog tradition. I haven’t missed one in years, and I’m not about to start now.
I know you’re probably swamped today, so we’ll keep this one short and sweet (like a gingerbread cookie).
Mmmm… gingerbread cookie…
- MOOD: Frazzled.
- ON A SCALE OF ONE TO 10, WITH 10 BEING MARTHA STEWART-CALIBER SKILL, HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR GIFT-WRAPPING ABILITIES? About a 7.5.
I did a stint as a professional gift wrapper when I was a teenager, so I used to be pretty good at it, but my skills have since deteriorated…
Wrapping presents is actually one of my favorite holiday activities.
- REMEMBER THOSE OLD-SCHOOL BODY SPLASHES FROM BATH AND BODY WORKS? DID YOU HAVE A FAVORITE ONE? Sure did. Juniper Breeze.
- DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL HOLIDAY DISH YOU TRY TO MAKE EVERY YEAR? My world-famous peach and blueberry cobbler…
Yes, the “world famous” part is, in fact, part of its official name. 🙂
- WEEKLY GOALS? To just relax, spend time with my family (including Shauna the Wonder Dog) and enjoy the holidays. That’s it.
Oh, and this next one doesn’t actually happen until next week, but I’m looking forward to it so much that I can’t not think about it now! On January 5, I’m meeting my friends Jen and Cindy for a girl’s spa weekend.
Gah! Can’t wait! Can’t wait! Can’t wait!
Well, that about does it for me (stay tuned for today’s giveaway a little later).
You know how this works. Just copy and paste the list below into a comment with your answers.
- MOOD:
- ON A SCALE OF ONE TO 10, WITH 10 BEING MARTHA STEWART-CALIBER SKILL, HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR GIFT-WRAPPING ABILITIES?
- REMEMBER THOSE OLD-SCHOOL BODY SPLASHES FROM BATH AND BODY WORKS? DID YOU HAVE A FAVORITE ONE?
- DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL HOLIDAY DISH YOU TRY TO MAKE EVERY YEAR?
- WEEKLY GOALS:
Wishing you a wonderful holiday and lots of love, my friend. 🙂 I’ll talk to you soon.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
BECCA’s Ultimate Eye Colour Quad in Astro Violet
Estée Lauder’s Heavy Petals
Two of the five new nail polishes from the new Estée Lauder Pure Color Nail Lacquer Heavy Petals Collection ($20 each). Available January 2013.
Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 223
A RELAXING TIME
by Tabs the Cat
Tabs could not believe how loud the generator was. The sound reverberated off the walls of his tiny shelter, and probably also off the frigid floor, which except for the one hole cut in the middle of the room, was a 12-inch-thick slab of solid ice.
When his friend, Felix, told Tabs about this place, told him about how ice fishing up here in the Northern Territories was the most relaxing thing he’d ever done, Felix neglected to mention the generator.
Figures…
Tabs shivered, despite his heavy wool coat, thick fur and thermal kitty underwear, and watched his breath puff in the frosty air.
The one electric bulb hanging from the ceiling briefly dimmed as the generator momentarily sputtered.
Wouldn’t that be perfect, Tabs thought, if the generator conked out and stranded him out here on a frozen lake?
The generator resumed its steady, rhythmic roar, which sounded to Tabs like the loudest lawn mower he’d ever heard.
He wondered what he would do if it stalled. The darkness wouldn’t be a problem for him because he was able to see in the dark, but the cold… How cold would it get in the little shack without the heater? Probably very cold…
He had no transportation, either, thanks to Felix, who talked Tabs into hiring a local bush pilot to make the trip here. Until the pilot returned on the day after Christmas, Tabs was on his own.
With a jolt, he suddenly remembered having his iPhone and pulled it from a pocket inside his coat, thinking that if something happened to the generator, he could call his assistant for help.
He slid his paw across the phone’s screen, and the device sprung to life, displaying more than a dozen illuminated app icons. Instinctively, his eyes went to the upper lefthand corner.
“Meow!” he cursed. No bars. He wouldn’t be able to make a call.
He held up the phone and waved it around in the air, looking for a signal. Nothing until, wait! — he saw one bar for a second. Maybe he could get a stronger signal over there, he thought, looking at the one tiny window in the room.
He hopped down from the chair, a sturdy, old thing made of heavy wood, set the iPhone down on the ice, and wrapped the end of his fishing line around a leg of the chair five times.
That should hold it, he thought, and then the generator stopped.
When he turned to face it, the bottom of his coat brushed the iPhone, which slid directly into the hole in the ice.
Plop, was the sound it made when it splashed into the water.
Uh, oh, Tabs thought, as the now quiet room went dark…
— TO BE CONTINUED —
If you enjoyed this little tale and would like to see Tabs continue the story, let him know in the comments. 🙂 And now, here are some pics from Tabs’ every-growing kitty modeling portfolio.
12 Days of Giveaways: Two Ways to Win a Neutrogena Allure Best of Beauty Gift Basket (an $83 Value)!
WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Kylie! Congratulations, Kylie! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Two things I saw yesterday while doing last-minute Christmas shopping at the mall…
A woman with a “COEXIST” bumper sticker on her car completely losing her sh*t in the parking lot. That’s how bad it was out there. There were a TON of people out shopping, and I kid you not, it took us more than an hour just get out of the parking lot!
The woman who started road raging was trapped in the parking lot with us and thousands of other people. I felt for her, but no one could do anything about it. There were so many cars jamming up the rows, trying to either find parking or make it to the exits, that she couldn’t back her car out. We were in one of the cars stuck in the row next to her, and at one point, she started yelling at no one in particular and shaking her fists in the air while I watched her through our windows and It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year played over the car radio… It was like some weird scene from a Judd Apatow movie.
El Hub getting props for his vehicular dance moves. Trapped in the mall parking lot, we started going a little stir crazy in the car after a while, singing off key and dancing in our seats. El Hub was doing the robot when a dude driving in the opposite direction made eye contact with him. The dude smiled awkwardly and gave us the “whassup” nod before cracking up. I laughed for a good five minutes after that…
What do either of these events have to do today’s giveaway? Nothing, really. But I hope one of them made you smile. 🙂 Even if it was only for a second.
That’s one of my favorite things about the holidays…finding joy in the littlest things.
Little things like the awesome skin care products that comprise the prize in today’s Neutrogena giveaway.
That’s right! It’s day 9 of 12 Days of Giveaways on Makeup and Beauty Blog (NOTE: click here and scroll down the page to enter any other ongoing giveaways).
One (1) Neutrogena Allure Best of Beauty gift basket valued at $83 and filled with the following goodies:
- Neutrogena Pure & Free Baby Sunscreen Stick SPF 60 ($8.99)
- Neutrogena Wet Skin Sunscreen Spray SPF 50 ($10.99)
- Neutrogena Naturals Lip Balm ($2.99)
- Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Night ($20.99)
- Neutrogena Make-Up Remover Cleansing Towelettes ($6.99)
- Neutrogena Body Clear Body Wash Pink Grapefruit ($7.49)
- $25 American Express Gift Card
- There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, what body products are in your shower right now? Do you have a favorite lip balm? What’s your nighttime skin care routine? Do you ever wear multicolored nails? Are you doing any last-minute shopping today? What does your Christmas stocking look like? What’s your go-to waterproof mascara? — you get the idea.
- Second, you can enter by following me on Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
- Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a Neutrogena Allure Best of Beauty Gift Basket! http://bit.ly/UnkqBA
- The deadline to enter is Tuesday, December 25, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. (PST).
- Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
- A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
- Contest is open to individuals in the United States who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
- Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
- The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. There are two other ongoing giveaways you may want to enter while you’re here (if you haven’t already). Just click the following links, and they’ll take you right to ’em. 🙂
- Two Ways to Win a Neutrogena Holiday Survival Kit Gift Basket (an $81 Value) — Closes Sunday, 12/23/12 at 11:59 p.m. PST
- Two Ways to Win a Neutrogena Winter Skin Rx Gift Basket (a $127 Value) — Closes Monday, 12/24/12 at 11:59 p.m. PST
WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Kylie! Congratulations, Kylie! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Estee Lauder’s New Pretty Naughty Pure Color Sheer Matte Lipsticks
It’s starting to feel like spring (in the makeup world) with the new Estee Lauder Pure Color Sheer Matte Lipsticks ($25 each; from the new Pretty Naughty collection).
