Olivia will turn 1 year in September. We will be in Italy to celebrate her birthday and I want to make one of those cool cakes you see on Pinterest. Given that my baking skills suck I decided to start practicing in advance so I made a Bloody Orange and Raspberry Cake I saw on Pinterest. The original recipe can be found on the Cake Blog. I am not going to re-write the recipe but I will add few tricks for dummies like me. The baker from the blog assumes that you have some basic baking skills. Well, I did not and I ended up trowing away the first two cakes and also managed to grated my thumb in the cheese grater.

FIRST TIP: Do exactly as the recipe reads. Do not skip steps, do not mix sugar with flour when you are not supposed to. Read the recipe in advance. Trust me!

SECOND TIP: Buy the proper pans to bake the cake. Do not try to bake this cake in those cheesecake baking pans because the batter will leak in the oven. (yes, that happened too when I was making it). You need to get those simple round oven pans you get at the supermarket. They are $5.

THIRD TIP: Buy tons of butter. Don't think the recipe asks for too much butter. You really need it.

FOURTH TIP: To make it easy to spread the icing on the cake, making sure you cover the entire surface, spread a layer, then put the cake in the fridge for 5-10 minutes, then take it out level it with a knife or special spatula and add more icing. Repeat until you achieve the desire look. More tips on how to frost cakes here.

The cake was amazing. I did not use all of the icing because I did not make 3 or 4 cakes. But the cake was extraordinary. So total success!! Good Luck if you make it and share your pictures!!

Here I share my disaster and my results. You can see my kitchen was a mess.

The past weeks have been quite fun but also off my regular routine. I was visiting a friend in Washington, baking desserts I can't bake (that I find on Pinterest), going to weddings, shopping for summer clothes, etc. This means that I have neglected my working out regime. I swear I am making the commitment today that June will be my working out month and sticking to a nutritional plan to help boots my work out. Until then let's enjoy the wine, pina colada, and cake.

Today I want to talk about make-up and this contouring tutorial.

MAKE UP: CONTOURING

What's contouring? The easy way to explain contouring technique in make up is one: Kim Kardashian. Kim Kardashian's make up is the result of contouring. Contouring is applying make up strategically in such a way to shape your face and features to minimize imperfections or highlights your best features. It can be very drastic as in Kim Kardashian or it can be pretty natural. It all depends on the amount of make up you apply and the results you are trying to achieve. Contouring make up these days come in any type of kit and palette. If you visit Sephora or any beauty stores ask one of their representatives to show you the different kits. For women 30 and older, opt for mousse/cream base items, avoiding powder which sets on wrinkles and leaves your skin looking dry. You might also invest in two different kits based on your location and season. For winter or dry environments opt for a mousse base, for hot and humid weather you want to minimize any heavy make up such as compacted powders. I must admit I still have not found a great centering kit for summer and for hot and humid weather. What I do is use my COVER FX but in little amounts then I proceed blending the product as much as I can.

I actually visited Sephora today with my friend, who saw my before and after picture of applying my COVER FX contouring palette. She had the make up artist applying hers on and we learned few more tricks on how to get the best results.

TRICKS for CONTOURING for real people

#1. Choose a natural shade palette close to your natural hue (don't go drastic, you don't want to look like Kim Kardashian when dropping your kids off school or teaching at school. It is weird).

#2. For cream/mousse base use your fingers to warm the makeup before applying on your skin. You can place some of the product on your hand then you can use a brush or your fingers to apply the product first. Finish by blending with a brush. BLEND, BLEND, BLEND.

#3. Dark colors will go right below your cheek bone. Make sure you start from your hairline and you stop before you reach your mouth. You need to stop at the end of your cheek bone. Then use the brush and stroke parallel first to the product, then vertical above and below the application.

#4. Once you are done with everything set your make up with powder or a special finishing product such as Model in the Bottle. Otherwise with summer heat it will just make you look like you are the Joker.

#5. If you want a more drastic look, add more product and experiment. 

Those are some tips, there are more of course, but those are the ones that I just had no idea and were very helpful. I am including a list of resources of girls who have really taken contouring to the next level. While this might not be you, you can still learn and adapt to your liking. It was helpful to learn more about the technique, what worked for me or did not work. For example, I am a huge fan of blending everything on my face with a big round rough brush I bought 15 years ago at the Body Shop. (Yes that's right).

Also, in reality you don't need to buy a fancy kit for contouring. You could use concealer, different shades of foundation, and a highlighter. But the thing is that you will probably spend more money buying individual items than just getting the palette. Same thing for brushes. You don't have to spend $37 on a single brush. Although I must say I have bought in the past cheap brushes and they fell apart in days. I really liked the brushes from the Body Shop. It was such a popular store when I was 14 and it was everywhere. One of the first natural, no animal cruelty beauty store. I loved it. Then they started shutting down their shops everywhere :( They actually still make the brush I use to blend anything (from liquid foundation, to powder). Ah what a great find. Here the link. [You can tell I am excited].

Contouring tutorials from other bloggers:
OnceWed: How to contour and highlight - Link
BeautyAdviceForLife: How to highlight and contour for make up - Link
Glamher_Booth on Instagram: A bunch of before after pictures with contouring - Link
Kim Kardashian Make Up Routine: Link
Incredible pictures of women with and without make up: Just for fun - Link

As for me and contouring I think I like it for special occasions. I am so used to not wearing make up that it is weird, but I have to admit I looked younger and fresh.

After the success of the braid challenge from Pinterest I asked my friends what they would like me to try out. Spring Cleaning was the top choice and I was happy because I have been wanting to do some hard cleaning around the house. As usual I started digging through Pinterest, reading blogs and tutorials from people who provided tips on how to get your house spotless. Just so you know if you want to try the same cleaning techniques at home know that apparently you need: 1. a lot of baking soda; 2. a lot of corse salt; 3. a lot of lemons; 4. Dawn Soap and 5. vinegar. These items came up every time for cleaning kitchen, tubs, faucets, you name it.

How the Challenge works: 
[Each day for 5 day I will pick one item to clean and discuss whether the suggestions on Pinterest were true or just a bunch of crap. I will update the post each day so you can either bookmark my awesome blog or you can subscribe to receive an e-mail alert when I update the post. You can also become one of my devoted followers.] Please do :)

CLEANING YOUR KITCHEN SINK

This only applies if you like me have a stainless steel kitchen sink, otherwise you can stop reading this or you can be mesmerized by my cleaning story. I originally find the information on DYI Ready but also added my own twist (brush, towel).

What you Need to Clean your Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink: 

Lemons (2)
Corse Salt (as much as needed)
A toothbrush (optional)
A bath or kitchen cloth (optional)

Cut your lemon in half and pour the salt until the surfaces are completely covered. Rub that lemon of yours on the sink and rinse with water. For the heavy scum use a brush and brush that dirt off your sink. I personally used the cloth to make sure there were no residuals of the lemon or salt and to make sure the sink would shine. The lemon is supposed to break down the scum and provide a shiny look.

Here my before picture:

After picture:

I don't see any difference. I just had a clean sink, but I still had some scum and was not shiny as suggested. My sink smelt good and for once I devoted 10 minutes of my energy cleaning the kitchen sink. So still worth it and definitely all natural, which is great if you have kids. What the lemon really worked on was the faucet. It really made it shiny and eliminated the dirt.

What do you think? Did you try this out at your house? Leave a comment below. Check back tomorrow to see what else I am cleaning that requires little to no time.

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR CHOPPING BOARD 

Day two of this week challenge is all about how to clean your house in less than 20 minutes. One of the items I have been wandering how to clean is my plastic chopping board with obvious stains from tomatoes, spices, or meat. I have been reading different blogs about how to clean cutting boards. I was shocked people use bleach (yes you heard me). How in the world are you going to eat after using bleach on a cutting board? I opted for natural remedies including lemons, salt, and baking soda.

First, I followed the directions of the Real Simple blog, which suggests to cut a lemon in half, squeeze it on the board and let it sit for 20 minutes. I took it further and after 20 minutes I rubbed salt using the lemon. Then I added baking soda and with the sponge I just rubbed and rubbed. You want to rinse the cutting board under warm water and watch the results.

Before cleaning the cutting board:

After cleaning the cutting board: 

Magic happened here.

HOW TO CLEAN COPPER PANS AND POTS

In theory cleaning or polishing copper pots should only take you 10 minutes. All you need is lemon and corse salt. Cut a lemon in half, pour salt on each half of the lemon and rub on the surface you want to polish. The acidity will strip away the built up on the bottom of your copper pan in no time.
For the edges on you pot I used a bristle sponge and I gently rubbed it until all the scum was gone. This part was time consuming because I have not polished my copper pots in a long time. The more you wait the harder you need to rub.
Before I cleaned:

WHAT YOU NEED:

After I cleaned: 

I decided to do a 7 days Hair Challenge taking hair braids tutorials from Pinterest and recreating these looks. I saved ideas and braid tutorials on my Pinterest Profile and looked for how to braid your hair and do cute easy hair undos.

The first challenge this morning was a Dutch braid by Barefoot Blonde. It is an upside down braided bun, which according to the blogger, is really easy. Below on the left side her final product (photos by Barefoot Blonde), on the right mine (my own photo).

It was not easy. It looked easy but after the second attempt I gave up. You can only see one strain of my braid at the very top of my head. I was not able to lift each single strain of hair and start my braid at the very bottom of my head. You can also see how sad my bun is. Despite having a lot of hair I was not even able to get a good bun. This was a total disaster. Even BuzzFeed could not replicate the complexity of this dutch braid.








Today my friend Christina challenged me on a messy braid bun featured on Latest Hairstyle by Jenny Strebe. I thought this could be potentially easy since it has the word 'messy.' I can camouflage imperfections. I was wrong of course and my attempt failed miserably today too.

First, I realized soon that I did not have the correct supplies. My pins were cheap and old which made the entire bun fall once I walked out the door. (Yes, I walked out the door like that). I did not have the right elastic bands. Mine were big and well yellow!! I also forgot to make the braids look messy and bigger. And the top of my head was too composed. But surely enough my trainer commented on my braids then proceeded to make me do one minute of jumping high knees- I had braids all over my face slapping me hard!!! Is there a tutorial on braids for incompetent girls like me?

I challenged my friend Christina to do the same as she always looks good with whatever she does with her hair. No surprise she was much much better than me. She shared some tips for beginners like me.

Tips and tricks on how to braid your hair: (I just copied what she sent me, yes lazy me, but I made comments from the beginner's point of view). 

Top Knot with Under Side Braid

This one was pretty easy for me, as the version with just a ponytail used to be one of my “go-tos” when I was a cheerleader in high school. [hint here: if you are a cheerleader your braiding skills will improve]. Some tips and tricks to be successful with this hairstyle:

- Section off the front portion of your hair. This helps you know where to stop braiding and it will help with the securing of the braid. - If you don’t know how to do a “Dutch braid” or “inside out braid,” instead of pulling your strands overtop of one another, you can take them underneath. - Sit on the edge of a bathtub or you WILL get dizzy! - Braid your hair as tight as possible and as close to your head as possible for the best results. - SUPER IMPORTANT, don’t stop braiding once you’ve run out of new hair to pull in, keep going almost to the end that way when your securing it with a hair tie, your braid won’t come undone. - Swoosh your hair around into a bun and secure with bobby pins. [beginners buy bobby pins] - To get the braid to look larger and thicker, take your fingers, or the metal end of a rat tail comb and starting at the thickest part of your braid pull gently at each section working your way back down to the base of your head. - Hair spray and GO.

Strand “Messy Bun” Braid

Fist warning, this is NOT a “5-minute” hairstyle when your hair is as long as mine! The end result was cute, but definitely this is not an “all day” look for someone with heavy hair, but would work for a dressed up date night. [I agree. Once I got to the gym my fell apart at the first jump] - I started by spraying some dry shampoo throughout my hair to create some added texture and grab. I try so hard to pull of the “day old “ hair, but my hair just looks greasy, so dry shampoo is an easy fix. - Section off the front of your hair and secure it so you can work easily on the back pieces. - When I separated my hair, I braided my hair straight back to get the same look as in the picture. - Instead of braiding all four sections at once, go ahead and mess up these back two sections by just tugging at them from within the braid and then pin them up. - This step is IMPORTANT. When you do your front two braids, you MUST pull your hair in the direction you’re going to pin it, or you’ll have two ridiculous bumps at the front of your head. [I was wondering why I always look like a Star Trek character] - I left these two tight to add visual interest and pinned them back. - Be sure to tuck in the ends, or you’re hair will end up looking weird. (Ahem, Ginevra!) Yes to that! - Bobby pin! Bobby pin! And hairspray.

Can we please give an applaud to Christina. Seriously, look at my attempts and hers. 

Day 3 of the braids tutorial challenge: 

I found the picture on Head Quarters For Hair which inspired me to give it a try. I think I  am getting slightly better, don't you think? I am waiting for Lulu to send me her version. 

Day 4 How to braid your hair from beginners:

I am so proud of this creation. The inspiration for today's challenge was the top picture on the left side. I could not find the original source with the tutorial so I had to improvise. I think it turned quite nice beside the green elastic band. As usual I want to show some of my friends' creations which are amazing as usual.












My friends' creations: two different friends with a lot of hair!!

Day 6 (I skipped a day): 

For a lazy Sunday I found an easy (so it appeared) braid pulled in a high bun. The picture from the top left was taken on Pinterest and it appears on the blog Daily Makeover. The remaining of the pictures are my own recreation.

What I learned: brush, brush, brush you hair so it will not create bumps. I never ever brush my hair but you can see it makes a huge difference. Also, having dirty hair helps and it does not even look I have dirty hair. Last, use some hairspray. It not only holds everything in place but it also gives a shine to the hair. I think I am starting to get this all 'how to braid your hair.' Remember to subscribe to my blog if you want an automatic update on the challenge.

Day 7 how to braid your hair 

It is finally here the last day of the braid challenge from Pinterest. It has been so fun and it was even more fun when few of my friends joined me. I have learned that with practice you can improve your braiding skills. While it was clear that the tutorials on Pinterest were from professional bloggers who probably tried and tried many times to get it right there is no reason why people like me should not try. I got so many compliments for just having a screwed up braid and it did not take too long. 

Now I am off to the next challenge from Pinterest. Do you want to challenge me? Then post a comment below with a picture of your challenge (must be from Pinterest) and I will try to recreate it! 

 

The first picture with the model was taken from PoPular Haircuts. 

If you want to challenge me leave a comment below and attach a picture. You can always tag me on Instagram.

I don't even remember when I last posted or talked about fashion, babies, and fitness. It has been quite  crazy few past weeks. We usually begin traveling quite often in the Spring, which means the laundry piles up in the house and we just don't spend as much time inside.

I wanted to share some pictures from The Avett Brothers's concert at Cascade Park in Tallahassee. If you are ever trying to find things to do in Tallahassee check out concerts and festivals that Cascade Park offers in the Spring.

So this past weekend it was the opening of The Word Of South Festival, which is a literature and music festival (free) through out the weekend. (what more do you need right?). The Avett Brothers (paid concert) opened the festival on Friday night at Cascade Park. To tell you the truth, although I listen to the band, I just did not really care about the concert because I was having such a great time with friends and being outdoors. When you don't get to go out often you are just happy you are out.

Cascade Park, located at 1001 S Gadsden St. is a 24 acres park located downtown Tallahassee. Despite the complains from locals while building the park, they were able to build an amphitheater for concerts and live music events. Attendees can either buy tickets to have sit or lay on the grass, which I actually prefer. There are food trucks and drink kiosks everywhere, although lines can be quite long. Even better they have a full bar. Yes, real cocktails, not the same cheap beer you find at most concerts. I really suggest anybody to just go at least one time. Bring your blanket and just relax as the sun goes down.