Stamped Hearts

Happy Thor's Day! I'm wearing: two coats of Eveline MiniMax, shade 801. These polishes look great in the store, but I have not been enjoying them, their texture is very thick and they take a long time to dry. The stamping plate I used is by essence. This would be a nice look, but since I haven't been stamping for a while I forgot that you're supposed to wait a while before putting a top coat on. So that's the reason why my stamping is smudged. I don't think this would have happened had I waited longer.
Lately whenever I'd do stamping I would be so disappointed. Either the whole picture wouldn't transfer well, or I'd mess up and I wouldn't place the stamping on the same location on each nail so it would look lopsided. So in my opinion, stamping is difficult to work with IF you want or expect perfection. I see why there is a huge market for water decals. Those seem so much easier to work with. All in all I didn't enjoy this look - it doesn't match my personality. What are your experiences with stamping? Are you a stamping n00b too? ;)

Happy Scrappy Day!

To those of you that left kind comments

on my Pincushion Post and haven't yet

received my reply ... I so very appreciate you ...

please know that ... and I am trying very hard

to respond to your emails!

To those waiting for the Wicked Blog Hop schedule ...

I am working on getting that schedule out today ...

To everyone else just cruising through ...

I wish each and every one of you 

a Super Happy day!

Wicked Wishes ....

Pincess Pincushion & the Frog Pince

Welcome to my day for sharing on

the Pin It pin cushion blog hop ...

I share with you today the short story of :

The Pincess & the Frog Pince ...

We begin this story by visiting 

Pin Pond in the Land of Petunias

where we meet the 

Hon. Frog Pince ...

He is sitting watching the bees and

lady bugs fly by in this patch of 

petunias where Pin Pond happens to be located .... 

Poor Hon. Frog Pince has to spend his days like this

since the Wicked Seamstress cast her wicked

stitch spell on him for so carelessly allowing a

pin to prick her finger ...

One day, in the Land of Petunias,

from the throne of Geraniums, Pincess Pincushion 

thought she needed to go for a

 "wander" about her flowerpot.

And, would you believe, 

(of course, she did .. this is MY fairy tale after all)

she stumbled across a wicked weed 

that should have been pulled by the 

Wicked Seamstress many, many eons ago...

right into Pin Pond ... 

and who should she meet?

Yes ... the Hon. Frog Pince ...

Well ... 

Frog Pince, certainly not one to pass up 

such a golden opportunity, nor neglect to admire

such a beautiful Pincess ... struck up a conversation

with Pincess Pincushion ... 

In their long discussion, he explained the

curse Wicked Seamstress placed upon him

and asked for a small favor ....

"Just a Pincess kiss, for this little Frog?"

Well, how could Pincess Pincushion ignore 

a request from such a handsome Frog ?

So she kissed him and wandered home for

the evening, as it was getting late and she

had to get home before the Wicked Seamstress

found her unattended in the Petunia patch.

Frog Pince waited ....

and waited ...

The next morning ... 

he discovered the curse had lifted...

The Real Frog Pince!!

And ... Pincess Pincushion, wanting 

to see if her kiss broke the Wicked spell, 

quickly made her way to Pin Pond to

see that yes ... she had magical powers ...

(must be the flowers pins in her head )

And they all lived happily ever after, 

saving the Wicked Seamstress from ever 

getting pricked again ....l

 And there you have the story of 

The Pincess Pincushion and the Frog Pince ...

I humbly thank you for visiting with me today ...

for making it through my story, created by myself and

my fellow authors ... my daughters ... in sharing my

creations with you today.

Please be certain to visit our fellow Pin It hoppers today:

September 17th

Life in the Scrapatch

Why-Knot-Kwilt ... you are here

Amy Made That...by eamylove

Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Quiltscapes

Kwilty Pleasures

Words and Stitches

Val's Quilting Studio

Les Quilts

Sew Peace to Peace

Bumbleberry Stitches

Susie's Sunroom

Quilts From My Crayon Box

Quarter Incher

I Like to QuiltBlog

Just Quilt It

Sew We Quilt

My gratitude to Kristen of Meadwbrook for your cheerleading skills
and of course, to Madame Samm for well, you know ... {wink}

Talking About Beauty Products, Volume 1

Hello all! I'd like to talk about a few beauty products I've been using lately. I'll get right to it since it will be a long post.

CATRICE Defining blush, 070 Pinkerbell

This product is a must have. It's a beautiful shade of pink; bright, but not hot pink. Application is a dream. I love Catrice blush and eyeshadow packaging - very sturdy, simple, classic. These 5g of product are just what every girl needs. It's the perfect pink blush and I'm so happy this product is available.

 

ALVERDE Naturkosmetik Schminkpalette, 10
Here is 5,4g of product that sucks. This was intended, I believe, to be used for children's Halloween face paint. The packaging is adorable and the shades looked so pigmented (they are not) that I decided to buy it. At least I can be happy I bought it on sale and not for the full price (not worth it). I guess you could use it as kid's face paint (beware, it will give them a sticky face and will get on everything) but not anything else. I would not repurchase, but it is pretty to look at. 

CATRICE ABSOLUTE NUDE EYESHADOW PALETTE 010 All Nude
This palette contains shimmer and metallic shades. It would be worth so much more if the darker shades were matte. Hopefully Catrice will have more palettes in the future (because the eyeshadows are nice quality), but this palette is not for me. I've only been using the first shade as hightlighter under my brow, the other shades just don't suit me. The packaging is good, but if you're looking for an every day non-shimmery neutral palette, it's not for you. If you like neutral shades with a shimmer or metallic finish, then this would be a good purchase. I might use this when doing a glam-neutral look, but it's not what I was looking for to use every day. It's still a great product. The brush that came with it, I took out, I've got good brushes so I won't use it. I love eyeshadow palettes so I still like this product, but I'm being honest, I don't use the middle shades. At all.

ESSENCE LIPSTICK, 08 COLOUR CRUSH
When I saw this new line online before it came out, I was really excited. The new packaging was amazing, and the shades looked great. My mistake was that I thought the shades would be matte - they are NOT. I bought this one because I thought I still might like it even though it's not matte. I guess in the future I'll stick to matte. Essence has some other matte products that I enjoy very much. Overall, this is not for me, mostly because of the shade, which is not a good choice for me, but the great thing about this product is that the application is a dream. The more I have it, the more I use it. ;) I guess this one won me over slowly. Maybe I'll pick one more up from this line.....

BIPA IQ COSMETICS LIPSTICK 31matt, STAR
What an AMAZING product - matte, super pigmented, just flawless. I am a bit sad that the other shades from this line don't appeal to me. The shade is kind of a crazy pink, so you have to decide if it's something you would wear. The only downside - these lipsticks can fall out of the case into the cap if you store them upside-down (so beware, and check them in the store). This is my favorite lipstick of the year - I LOVE IT!

GOLDEN ROSE LIPSTICK, 113
I've been hearing great things about this brand, and I understand what everyone is talking about. They've got a lot of fun shades available, and the pigmentation is great. I've been enjoying this shade a lot. Seriously, these lipsticks are great quality for a very low price. I plan on going back for more shades.

GOLDEN ROSE LIPSTICK, 108
A friend gave me this shade and it's so not for me. It's a cold, very bright shade with a shimmery-metalic finish. Not my cup of tea. The quality is still great, but out of all the shades they have, this isn't something I should be wearing. It visually shrinks my lips. Some women could pull this shade off, but I'm not one of them. I need more pinks and purples from this brand, not pearl-pink shades. I would not buy this shade for myself.

LA ROCHE-POSAY NOVALIP DUO LIPSTICK
I've been using this shade so much that the number of the shade has worn off (I think it's 185). I just wanted to say how much I've been enjoying this lipstick. Such great quality (but you will need to re-apply after food or drink), and it feels so light when it's on my lips. I've been enjoying their nail polishes, and now I've discovered their lipsticks work great for me.  

CATRICE ULTIMATE COLOUR LIPSTICK, 190 The Nuder The Better
Would not repurchase. Doesn't have good pigmentation, it seems almost watery. This shade is quite darker than what it might appear at first. Haven't been using it at all, whenever I put it on, I just take it off straight away. I guess this shade is just a bad match for me.

Let me know what you think about these products. And have a great weekend ;)

Coastal Scents 252 Ultimate Palette

Happy Wednesday! I wanted to talk about one of my favorite beauty purchases EVER. So I present to you the Coastal Scents 252 Ultimate Eyeshadow Palette. It is an amazing thing - 252 eyeshadows - gorgeous colors, mattes and shimmers inside. Let me just say - there is nothing bad that I can say about this palette - I can only say positive things. I bought this during one of their many sales, so I got the product for 14USD, but shipping ended up costing more than the product (but that does happen sometimes when sending things to Croatia), so I payed 200kn (35USD) for this product.

I couldn't be happier with this product. The pigmentation is awesome - there's a little swatch in this post (no primer, dry use)...it's impossible to swatch them all. When I was purchasing it, my main concern was what if some of the eyeshadows crack or break during the transport - but nothing of the sort happened. Before I bought this product, I did read many reviews online, and in some of them they were saying that the eyeshadows are really tiny. When it arrived and I saw it for the first time, the eyeshadows did appear very small, but now when I look at it, I just don't see them as small at all. I mean, I don't think I could ever spend one of these eyeshadows, so...In retrospect, it does make sense that the eyeshadows are smaller because you have to fit 252 of them in there. ;)

Inside the palette there are 3 different plates: the first one contains yellows, oranges, reds, browns, and some really great shimmery gold and bronze ones(this is my favorite plate of the three).

 
The second plate contains greens and blues and some brown shades.

 And the third plate contains just a variety of things - here I use mostly browns and blacks.

The main reason I purchased this palette was that I wanted to have ''every color'' that I might ever need or want (so I can buy less eyeshadow). However, since purchasing this product, I have fallen in love with eyeshadows and I keep buying more of them (It's a trap! LOL). Seriously, I'd love to own every single palette that Coastal Scents has available. I know, I've got a problem ;)

Here you can read more about this product: HERE - here you can find much better photos and read other user reviews.
And HERE you can see some other eyeshadow palettes that they have available (so gorgeous, right?)

Do you own any eyeshadow palettes? Are you happy with them? Let me know what you think.

Thank you ....

September 11th is a date that will stick in many
of our memories in the United States ...

.... and knowing I am blessed by many international visitors ...

 I state that I proudly stand in humble gratitude to those that 

serve in the name of our country to serve and 

protect those of us that live in these United States .... 

and therefore, on this day I share my deep, sincere 

gratitude the for those that have served, those that

have lost, and those that continue to serve and protect ...

I will not forget ...

God Bless!

Sign Up to Be WICKED!

Wicked Blog Hop sign up starts .... now!

Yes .... sign-ups were planned to start Saturday,

however, in our true Wicked-ness,

we decided to start the Wicked fun a tad early ...

When sending me your email to sign up ...

PLEASE INCLUDE:

Your name

Your email address

If you have Blog

(if you don't we'll find you a blog host)

Your Blog name

Your Blog Address

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!

You have until Saturday, September 14th to register

( although we usually fill up within hours not days)

 We are limiting this hop

 to the first 100 wicked participants..

Since  Madam despises rules, we call them guidelines...

READY?

#1 Everyone must turn off their word verification the day 

they are showing their Wicked Project- PERIOD.

#2 Only 5 ladies with no blogs will be accepted,

it will be a first come, first serve basis.

Wendy or I will host for you! 

#3 You must have your post ready at 

midnight E.S.T. If you are not

sure how to do that, we will guide you. 

( will do a tut for you if necessary)

#4 And most important, YOU

must add the names and links from

those who are on the hop the same

day as you.  ( keep yours on too) We want everyone

to find your wicked friends

as easily as they found you- PERIOD.

#5 All  Subscribed Wicked hoppers must

put button on their blog.

( on the top right) 

copy code in gadgets

 html copy- that is it

( those who have no blogs, of course

you are omitted lol)

Now all together:

"I swear- to swear

by all these Wicked Guidelines.."

SWEAR! ok! 

Send me an EMAIL ... at gracerose172@gmail.com

What you will be making for this hop!

#1- Any WICKED project that you have

created especially for this hop- at least one

and you can show others that you worked on 

in the past. Stay on theme...

#2- You can have a tutorial or giveaway

both optional

#3- SWEAR to have a Wicked Time..~

That is it~ 

This blog hop begins on Oct 22nd -31st

No weekends...

Think Halloween

I may not be available to answer any emails 

immediately -- but will get back to you asap.