Well hello again!

Another several month hiatus from my poor little blog here.  Life has been a bit crazy the past couple months.  So, what have I been up to?  Let's see if I can catch you up on the past 3+ months, shall we?  If you follow me on Instagram, (I'm Shawnana on there, if you want to follow me) you've likely seen quite a few of these photos. 

September
A couple girlfriends & I went to Bumbershoot.  We saw so may great bands.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and it reminded me that we are fortunate to have a fabulous music scene in Seattle.

The Space Needle

Where's Waldo?  No, seriously... do you see him?  This guy cracked me up, dressed as Waldo

Gotye.  Amazing show!

Goofing around

Sitting, waiting for the next band to go on stage

A quick photo before leaving

We grabbed a burger at Dick's for a late night snack

BFF came to visit.  She was here for 10 days.  It was SO good to see her & spend some good, quality time together.  The good news is that her trip here confirmed her feelings that WA is home, and she begun to do what she needed to move back here.

In Anacortes, visiting BFF

The bestest friend a girl could ever have

I met up with Hubs in Las Vegas for a weekend trip.  We thought that maybe we could work things out, but unfortunately we have since decided to continue with the divorce proceedings.  We stayed at The Green Valley Ranch Resort in Henderson.  I highly recommend the resort.  It was absolutely gorgeous and so incredibly relaxing.  We went to see Beatles Love while we were there.  I'd seen it before, but I loved it just as much the 2nd time around.  Such an amazing show!

I went from having blond hair (as you see above) to dark, brunette hair.  Hubs liked my hair blond.  I much preferred it dark.  So, now I get to do what I want to do.  :) the little  things in being single, right?

I think that sums up most of September.

October
October was quite a bit quieter.  I started going to bingo with my Mama Friday nights.  It's quite entertaining. 

I went to see Wicked when it was playing.  My mama and two of my close girlfriends & I went.  We had a really good time.

Fall weather definitely arrived.  Back to the rainy, cold season the Pacific Northwest is infamous for.

 But we did still see some nice days as well. 

 

 

The biggest news for October for me, was I finally bought a car!  Yay!! I absolutely love it!  I got a 2013 Ford Focus.  I didn't intend on buying a brand new vehicle, but with the rebates & incentives they were offering, it was only a couple thousand more than the 2011 I was looking at. 

Phew, so moving onto November (almost caught up!)

November
Mom & I took a weekend trip over to Coeur d'Alene, ID to see my brother & niece, as well as a couple of my cousins that live in the area.  It snowed quite a bit the first night we were there, which was very pretty to look at, but a little nerve wracking for me to drive in it, as it's been quite awhile since I've driven in the snow.  We had lots of quality family time.  Mom & I even cooked an impromptu early Thanksgiving for my brother & cousins. 

My sweet lil' Nousin

My precious niece.

Me, Mama & my cousin

My older brother & his family got a new dog, Dolly.

My nephew, A, kicking our butt at Monopoly

Game night with the nephews

My silly nephew, G.

Thanksgiving was spent with my Mom, Dad, and little bro at my grandparents house.  It was a very enjoyable afternoon.  My family really is the best!

Lil' Bro taking his turkey transporting duty very seriously

Crappy cell phone photo, but I do like it.  My brother is so handsome! 

We've now got the tree up & decorated.  Although at times it'll be difficult, as this will be the first Christmas without Hubs in 8 years, I am looking forward to Christmas.  I am excited to be back home, with my family again. 

Now that I've gotten caught up, let's hope I can continue it! 

New Hair

I finally got my hair done a couple weeks ago.  I'm really happy with it!  I went a little more copper in color, but still with blond highlights. 

Here's a before:

Nice grow out, right?  Yeah.

And here's a couple afters:

Yay for new hair!  :)

I apologize for the crappy phone photos... I really do need to get a new real camera. 

On a side note, I'm even more convinced that there is truly no better place to live than the Pacific Northwest in the summertime!  Summer has finally arrived (as usual, right around July 5th it showed up) And I am LOVING it! 

here's a few photos from the past few weeks...

An evening walk around Green Lake

Hanging out at my brother's pool with my Mama

Perfect ending to a great weekend.  Friends, wine, and a gorgeous sunset over the Sound

Makeup storage

I've mentioned before that I'm a huge makeup junkie.  I'll admit, it's a little bit ridiculous.  I'm always wanting to try new products, and especially eyeshadow/eye makeup. I'm always interested in seeing how others store their makeup, so I thought I'd share how I store or organize the majority of mine.  I'm currently using an old nightstand as my makeup/hair product/vanity type thing.  It has two drawers, and the top one is makeup, the bottom one is mostly hair things - curling irons, flat irons, hair ties, bobby pins, etc. 

So here's my makeup drawer:

I have things separated out in individual little tray organizer things (such a technical name I've given it, huh?)

This is my mascara, eyeliners, eyeshadow primer basket

This is individual shadows (stacked on top of each other). The ones I wear most often. Other, less used ones, are stashed away

These are my newest additions... I kind of love them right now. Each one comes with a lip/cheek stain, a highlighter, blush & lip gloss.

See, aren't they cute? :)

My two most used palettes. Urban Decay Naked & Naked2. And a random Stila one hiding in the background

Other less used palettes. Kat Von D, Lorac, MAC, Nars, etc. I don't use any of these very often. Maybe a couple times a month. If that.

This is my face basket, foundation, bronzing serum, BB cream, powder, blush, beauty blender etc. (on a side note, I love love LOVE the Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation. Seriously. Love.)

The lip product basket. Yeah, I know. Ridiculous. And there's bound to be another 4 or more floating around in my purse.

 

My makeup brushes. I need to get some filler so they stand up straight in there, but for now, this works.

So, there ya have it.  That's how I currently have my makeup organized.  Or the most used items. I have a little 3 drawer cubby thing that has other random things that I don't use often, but still want to hold onto. 

How do you organize your makeup?