Get your butt in gear.

Hey guys,
I feel like I've been slacking a bit in my posts and I'm sorry for that. Between work and everything after work, I've felt a little run down and unmotivated. But I have started something new that I'm quite excited about!

Full week found here.

I was never much interested in working out (wanted to be healthier but I couldn't find the effort), but I came across these photos on pinterest and I thought they looked easy and interesting. I've only done them for 3 days so far but I can definitely feel it, and it only takes about 15 minutes out of my day. So, for anyone who wants to get in better shape but who'd much rather do literally anything instead of going for a run, give this a try with me! Hopefully I'll get to a point where these are a warm up to something better.

PS: If you don't know what some of the moves are, youtube has been super helpful to me.

My Beauty Addiction Review

I received my order from My Beauty Addiction yesterday, and I cannot say how pleased I am! To start, incredibly fast shipping. I feel like I received it in no time! (This may also be because I didn't have to wait for the package to get to the east coast like I normally do, but regardless, it was mailed the next day after ordering.)

Everything arrived in a bubble mailer, with bubble wrap, and was sorted in mini ziplock bags according to the sets that I bought. And it came with a bonus sample!! I love when companies do that, because its almost always something I'd never buy myself but often love. So bonus points for that.

All the samples come in an extra deep clamshell container with a fair amount of product.

Toxic

Theirs on the left, standard clam shell on the right. 

The primer was also very different. Its more of a lip balm texture, where the others I've used have been liquid.  But it goes on wonderfully, its hard to use too much of it because of it being more solid, and holy moly does it hold on to the colors! Look at a few swatches I did on my hand, you can clearly see where the primer was applied.

L-R: Agent Orange, Karma, Chrome, Blue Currauco, Toxic, Shameless, Swiss Chocolate. 

The colors themselves are gorgeous, highly pigmented, and go on smooth as silk.

The whole lot. I figured it was time to invest in 'neutral colors' so there's a lot in there. 

The test run:

Shameless, Agent Orange, and Sand Dollar. (Plus 2 darker non MBA products above the crease.)

I wore these eyeshadows (with primer) out to a concert last night, where I had the shadows on for 6+ hours in the heat, dancing, moshing and general rocking experience. When I got home there was barely any creasing, way better than without a primer or with the last primer I had purchased. (I'm convinced I'll always have creasing, my eyelids just must be really oily :P).

The flash made it look worse than it was, I think. 

The second wear:
Wore it to work today and had only the worlds tiniest amount of creasing which was easily fixed with a touch of my finger, without having any shadow come off.

Verdict:
I would definitely suggest buying from them if you're looking for a great product and an independent makeup label. Great service. It's also nice to get a great primer for $5 instead of having to pay $15-$30.

The Creepshow!

I had such an awesome evening. The Mr and I went out (for the first time in Ottawa) to a bar to see some bands play.. But not any bands! Oh no. Only one of my favourites. The Creepshow! And what an amazing show it was!

I also gave one of my anatomical heart necklaces to the singer (with a business card.. Always pimpin'..) via the stage guy. I hope she likes it! What can I say? She's hot and she's fierce and that's the kind of person I want to see with some Tamed Raven :P.

My camera battery was dying so there was a multiple second lag on all my pictures, but I wanted to get a couple to share with you.

Loves me some double bass..

Sadly I missed some great shots, but even though their faces are missing, I still like it (and find it hilarious).

I also received my order in the mail today, wore it out and rocked out in this new makeup for 6 hours. I'll do a full review within the next couple days. As for now.. Sleep!

Bones, Bones, Bones

So, big news! I've come to the realization that if I want to make amazing clothes for other people, I have to sew things that I love that I cannot keep. Not even for a little while. That being said, I've finally taken the plunge and am going to start selling my clothing! I've got a few things already listen and a few that I'll put up in a few days. I spent my day off today taking pictures, and tearing apart the living room in the process (that's why I chose today when the Mr. would be at work, so he wouldn't be terrified at the state of everything). I'm happy to be finally doing this, and hopefully it's going to be well received.

En tout cas (anyway), on with the pictures!

Tanktop, skirt belt and necklace all on TR etsy

And a better picture of the corset (that I had to clip in the back to fit me, didn't realize I made it any bigger than my last corset!)

Fleece shrug made out of scrap pieces. 

This can also be worn as a skirt but I can't find pictures of that. Its awesome, though.

I wish that the second flash transmitter hadn't ran out of batteries, it would have gotten rid of all those horrible shadows on the wall behind me, but what can you do..

Also, I ended up buying some eyeshadow from MyBeautyAddiction on etsy yesterday, and they were already shipped out today! So once those come in I'll do a review and let you know how they are. They look promising though!! I got the sand and sea collection (12 eyeshadows, wonderful muted pastels) and another 10 eyeshadow samples, along with their primer (mine expired loooong ago). Where am I going to store them all you ask? I have no idea. I'll need to get some new way of storing things, I think.

Colorful dreams of spring.

I can't wait for spring. I'm imagining colors galore and cute outfits that aren't hidden under coats, hoodies, scarves and hats. I'm aiming to dress nicer (I've only recently been comfortable wearing skirts and shorts, and I shouldn't let them go to waste in the closet) and to bring some more color into my spring since I miss it so much.

See, I used to be a very colorful person in the hair department (I'll throw in a couple pictures below :P), and the only thing stopping me from going back and dying it again is remembering how high maintenance it was, along with having to be an adult with a job that doesn't allow it.. Pfft..

Hopefully my spring will look a lot like this, glitter, open backed tops, and colorful hair pieces when the urge gets too strong...

New semi-natural hair color?

Shirts like this with big glam necklaces.

Getting my but in gear and making shoe clips.

Anthro hoodie.

Glitter eyeshadow, Rock this alllllll the time.

Clip in bangs, for when the urge gets too strong. From here.

Gorgeous flowing tops like this scream nice weather. From here.

PS: The new fun. album can be previewed a week before its release on their website here. I don't know what I think of it yet. Some songs I adore and some are autotuned to death and make me sad. I don't know if they'll grow on me. Part of me hopes so, since their first album is amazing. Give it a listen!

PPS: Like I said I would include, a few colors I've had.

The return of Jurassic Park

So.. I made another dinosaur skeleton necklace. I just couldn't resist any longer!
This time its a triceratops, and he's oh so cute. I now have 3 dinos to call my own, the raptor the Mr made me, the triceratops, and the ceratosaurus. I also discovered the other day there's a dino named after Harry Potter (Dracorex Hogwartsia!!) Might that be the next???

Rawr!

If you're new to my blog, I originally posted a tutorial to make a dinosaur necklace here, if you're interested in making one for yourself!

I'm also going to be selling a limited number of them in the store (only 10!) so if you want one but don't want to go through making one, you have options.

He's also a little meatier (for a skeleton) than the first dino I had for sale, but that makes it more sturdy. Length is about the same too (~5").

I lost my lip ring cause I have to take it out every day for work, so I'm stuck using this annoying thing. On the plus side, its a good picture of the necklace :P

If anyone has since made a dino based off my tutorial (or any skeleton, for that matter!) I would absolutely love to see it!

Blend in? I don't think so!

I've got a confession. I'm an eyeshadow-aholic. I've got so much and I always want to buy more. Seriously, look at all this:

They're all on the cookie sheet because I attached magnets to all the shadows. Now I can stand it up against something and they don't fall over. Eventually I'll get a pretty frame with a metal insert to spruce it up..

I tend to buy a lot of eyeshadows off etsy cause I like getting different colors I can't around here, trying out new brands, but best of all.. Sample sizes. I can get 10 eyeshadows for 10$ +S&H. And even though companies say 'good for 3-4 uses' I make my eyeshadows bright and interesting and I have yet to finish any of my samples as of yet. Getting close on a few of them, and when I do run out I'll buy some more.. But it's justified because its the only make up I wear.. right? Right? I think so. I don't use foundation or eyebrow stuff, and I own a whole 2 lipcolors, both red, and I wear neither.

Point being, I get so many different colors that they all last a really long time. And I figured I would share some of my favourite looks with you when I do them. I'm often too lazy to grab the Mr.'s nice camera so I can't promise the best pictures but I'll do what I can to show what I do, with what products, and what I think of them.

My friends call me brave for wearing such bright colors. I just think its fun :).

So! First up on the docket after this little ramble:
My 'Tequila Sunrise' look.

These pics are old, of the first time I did it. They're much better than the ones I tried to take today with it on though, trust me!

What I used:

Plus eyeliner, not in the photo :P. I also just realized I took a picture of the wrong palette (reasons why I shouldn't blog late at night). I used this palette (image courtesy of google):

And I used the 3 middle colors from this one.

How to:

Apply your primer/base. I ran out of primer so I've been going straight on with the Nyx pencil (in milk) to start.
Apply the yellow shadow to your lid until the crease.above the crease, fade the light orange, dark orange, and pink from the inner corner out, making sure to blend the pink really well and out a bit. Use the darker pink under the eye. Add mascara/eyeliner and you're all done.

Product reviews:

A little different way of doing the look (without the pink and more shading) that I had on today.

Nyx pencil: It creases a little bit by the end of the day (like you can see in this above picture that I took today) but this eyeshadow crayon is AMAZING! It helps keep your eyeshadows in place and it helps weak shadows POP if they don't have enough pigment to do it on their own. I don't even remember what I did before this.

LA Colors palette: Love it! Super cheap (got 2 palettes for 5-8$ at Urban Planet). Wonderful color payoff on the warm tones and it states right on the back that it's not tested on animals. Yay!

Concrete Minerals: I got their shadows off their etsy (which they no longer have) but they have their own proper website now, found here. The colors are true to image, and when I bought their little sample packs they included one free. Application is a dream and the texture is really nice and smooth. I use all but one of the shadows I bought from them regularly. (I don't use mad hatter, not because it isn't wonderful, but its too dark for the looks I want to use it for). Unfortunately it looks like they don't offer samples anymore so I don't know when I'll buy from them in the future (I find it hard to justify spending 7$ on just one color) but their stuff is wonderful so I'm sure I'll be back eventually.

The rest: Nothing that I would brag about, it does its job. :)

Ice Sculptures & New Purse Pattern

We went down to see the ice sculptures in down town Ottawa today. They were pretty impressive and I tried to only take a few pictures of the best things to share with you :P.

Colored wolf sculptures inspired by thermal imagery. By far my favourite thing I saw that day.

OCTOPUS!

Also, Craft 6 or 50 down! I made myself a new purse. And I love love love the pattern so much that I'm going to make a few more for my store. (The base pattern that is, they'll all be decorated differently). I first was going to use another fabric for the ruffles but I couldn't be bothered cutting and hemming and all that, and I already had a huge strip of fabric already cut and hemmed that I saved for like, a year to use as ruffles on something, so I went with that instead. It was my first time making them and I think they turned out pretty good. I didn't have enough fabric to cover the whole front though so that's why only half is done, hahah. I like how it looks though!

Its also fully lined and has 3 pockets, one for girly stuff (hand lotion, spare eyeliner, etc), one thats currently holding business cards, and one that was meant for my camera but it seems I've put an ipod and a little notebook in there to keep the clutter down on the inside of my purse.

Lastly, I've been holding onto this little thing for months. Its some kind of bike part that the Mr didn't need that figured I'd want to keep. He was right. Its cool looking, has a good weight, and is quite shiny. Only problem is trying to decide what to do with it. Any ideas? Ideas I've had include: a locket, filling the centre with epoxy, macramé..

It's all chrome-y and shiny, and 3" wide. What to use it for...