11

11 years ago today this kid came into the world. 

The thing about your first born is that they are the ones that made you a parent.. they are the ones that you experience all the joys and pains of raising kids at various ages and stages with. The bear the brunt of your mistakes, but also light the path for their siblings. 

Lucas is nothing short of an amazing kid. He has this magnetic personality and insanely sweet smile. He's sensitive and tough.  Hardcore and goofy. All at the same time. He's my little man... and soon, too soon, he will be a big man... 

#MakeUpMonday: Once You Go M.A.C....

I'm not faithful to one make-up brand. I flit, I float, I fly around Sephora and Ulta trying new things and going where my eye takes me. But recently I've found myself going back to an old favorite - M.A.C.

I've never truly given up M.A.C. products, but they haven't really been top of my list over the past few years. A few weeks ago a particularly good sales woman cornered me at the counter at Nordstrom and sold me two new products that I'm currently OBSESSED with: Kohl eye liner in Orpheus and Fluideline eye liner gel in Stares and Speculation.

Yes. I know they are very similar in color. Both are black/gold/bronzy. I love the smoothness of the pencil and the color is fabulous for day or night. The pencil is more defined, and I do feel the eye liner gel is too light to be a liner, so I've been using it as a smudgy shadow. Just using my finger to rub it onto my lids creates an amazing, light smoked eye looked. Not too overly smoky, but just enough for daytime wear or casual evening wear. Use them together and BAM! You have a fabulous, easy, black-tie optional look. 

Head's Up: These are limited edition colors and already selling out. So put this on your "self gifting" list for the holidays and get to your local M.A.C store or counter STAT. 

I LOVE Halloween...Decor.

I wasn't going to go crazy this year. I'm not having anyone over and I don't even have my kids 2 weekends this month. I was just going to be chill about Halloween decor... maybe put out a few bowls of candy corn and a spider web or two? 

HAHAHAHA. Who was I kidding? 

Seriously. I LOVE Halloween and nothing makes me happier than decorating. And a total bonus? This year since Lucas and Zoe are a little older, I can finally move away from "cutesie" decor and into a more macabre theme.

Vanilla Moose got creepy this year as I went for more spiders, bats and skulls inside the house. 

One of my favorite parts of decorating is pulling out the boxes from the garage and re-discovering all the goodies I have! I had forgotten about my headless horseman and sparkly pumpkin from last year, and pulling them out actually physically, made me happy. 

Then there is the outside...

My inspiration this year? Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. 

I had been obsessing about birds for a few weeks. So imagine my delight when I walked into Michaels and they were 60% off! I think I bought them out of birds. Sorry Encinitas/Carlsbad - you can not steal my idea because there are NO MORE BIRDS TO BE HAD. And if there were, I may have bought those as well.