How to: Frosty Cut Crease and Outlander

Hi! I thought I'd share one of the looks I decided to do for Sephora Holiday. We have 3 looks to choose from that we can wear throughout the holiday season. The look I chose to do a play on is called crimson frost. The basic idea is to do a silver eyeshadow on the lid and a red lip. It was kind of simple and boring, so we're allowed to kick it up a notch.
The first step I did to achieve this eyeshadow look was to apply eyeshadow primer (I like Urban Decay's Primer Potion) and a white cream shadow pencil (NYX pencil in Milk). I then blend the shadow pencil out with my fingers. This will allow your shadow to stick better and give it a more intense looks.

 Next I took a dense shadow brush and packed silver glitter shadow directly on top of the shadow pencil.

Once I was done applying the shadow I applied a thin line of black gel liner across my gel line and extended it following the angle of my eye. I then extended that into the crease of my eyelid. I didn't try too hard to be a perfectionist with the crease because that got blended out with a pencil shaped brush.

Make sure that you blend each eye out evenly so it doesn't look uneven. I decided that I didn't want to take the black liner all around the eyes since this was already an intense look. I took a silver eyeliner pencil and lined my waterline next to the bottom lashes.

In order the finish off the look I applied some shimmery white shadow in the inner corner and used my favorite mascara on the top and bottom lashes. Finally I chose to use OCC Lip Tar in the shade Vintage to get the classic red lip.

This is a bold holiday look that's great for a night out or holiday party. If you choose to go with the Lip Tar try to stay away from kissing or eating food where you're taking large bites. This lip product is highly transferable and it will go everywhere if you're not careful to use very little.
Another thing that has been getting me through this lovely holiday season is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I am currently halfway through the second book Dragonfly in Amber. It's one of those books that you never want to put down because there is always some kind of new action happening. I'm hoping that santa will be good to me and bring me the third book. Especially since I have to wait until April for the second half of the first season of the TV series.

*sigh* Guess I will have to keep reading until April.
-ParanormallyPretty

That Time I Drove Myself to Lunacy or The Chevron Patterned Stairs Project

As you guys already know I'm a very artistic person. Aesthetic details are what make my world turn. So when I looked upon this drab old stair case day to day I knew I had to freshen it.

 Blah, right? The lighting is also an issue that we will be working on a little bit later. I knew that this project was going to be a time consuming undertaking so I waited until I had a stretch of days off from work.
The first step was to get the stairs cleaned up a bit. There were a bunch of scuff marks and cobwebs. We just never really focused attention on this area of our home since moving in last year. The vacuum and Mr.Clean Magic Eraser did the trick for getting rid of any ick.
Once the stairs were cleaned and prepped I began by painting the stairs with the base coats of Ultra White Semi-gloss paint. We didn't go fully glossy because we didn't want them to be super glaring. This required about two coats of paint due to the thickness of the beige color underneath.
Once that was finished John and I measured out a chevron stencil and used an exacto knife to cut this out of cardboard. IMPORTANT: make extra sure that you know the proper dimensions of all of the stairs. Our very top and bottom steps had slightly different dimensions due to how the steps were constructed. I placed the stencil starting from the left side of the stairs so that the chevron patterns would match up on each step. There were also some odd cutouts on the top right stair. 

 

The taping took a few days on its own. Unfortunately, I got sick with an awful cold and wasn't able to paint until a week later. I was really beat after taping up all those chevrons. Finally, after I began to feel better I painted the black kettle color over the top of the paint. Just so you guys know, painters tape sucks. It bled like crazy.

So after I pulled the tape and saw this I used some of my artist paintbrushes with both colors and spent a couple hours doing touch ups. Here is the finished product.

The walls and the stair guard are going to be painted in the coming weeks. Cold weather means indoor home improvement projects for us.