Make Up Junkie

I have a confession to make.

I'm a make-up junkie!  Yes even when I don't need make-up, I buy more!
Anyone else have this problem?!

Recently I made a trip to Ulta, all I needed was foundation.  That's all I needed.  Well, you get me into that store, filled with all those beautiful palettes and what can I say, I'm weak!

That's right, I walked in for foundation, and walked out with that plus the new Too Faced eye shadow palette and new contour.  But in m defense I was running low on contour and the eye shadows were just so pretty!

Lately I've become obsessed with Too Faced, and I'm glad I have.  Their colors are gorgeous, and the chocolate products really and truly do smell like chocolate!

The Cocoa Contour smells like chocolate and glides all smoothly.  Two different shades of contour and highlighter.  The last contour I had was a cream, and I prefer this powder.  It doesn't make me as oily and I like that I can build up the color.  Plus it comes with this cute little brush too..bonus!!!!

Now let's talk about this trio!  Initially when I first saw it I thought they were sold individually.  But lucky lucky.. these come together along with a pretty travel case and mini Better Than Sex mascara.  It's a win win in my book.  I've already used several of these colors since I bought it and I'm in love!  Plus I just love the Christmas names.

I'm also starting to developed a love affair with graphic print tees.  I've been stocking a few within my boutique, and I have to restrain from keeping all of them!!

This tee is one of my favorites, its long and I do love me some Bon Jovi!  I love that a graphic tee can easily be worn in multiple ways form casual to dressy.  

Shop my outfit at www.eightelevenboutique.com
(pants here, top here)

Boots are by Guess and Handbag is from Michael Kors

Of course almost every time we do photos my daughter wants to join in!!

Shop some of the other graphic tops in my store

XO - Beth

Happy Halloween

One of my favorite days of the year is here.. Halloween!

I mean who doesn't love an excuse to dress as someone else and eat your weight in candy?!  Not to mention the scary movie marathons!  Halloween is definitely one of my favorite Holidays outside of Christmas and my Birthday 😜

The last several days have been jammed packed (which is why I wasn't able to post last Thursday).  Between the boutique, the kids and being locked away in my kitchen it's been madness here.

I spent a good 24 hours baking up a storm in my kitchen.  I had a friend who was organizing/attending a zombie themed party, who asked me to make some gruesome cupcakes.  Of course I couldn't say no!  I made them some "bloody brains & eyeball" cupcakes.

These "bloody brains" are red velvet with a cream cheese frosting.  Then they were drizzled in a bloody cornstarch mix.  I also made 2 dozen grey goose jello shots using syringes so the guest could either insert them into their cupcakes or take the shot on its own.

Now these "Bloody Eyeball" cupcakes were probably my favorite!  They look all pretty with the rose piping but then the gruesomeness is added with the blood and eyeballs.  They're a vanilla cake with a strawberry puree filling topped with a vanilla buttercream.  Again I used my bloody cornstarch to drizzle over a gumball eye.

The day before I started baking these I had the honor of baking an "I Beat Cancer" cake.  Another friend's mother in law just kicked breast cancers butt and they wanted to celebrate.  I was more than willing to squeeze this into my schedule!

This one is a triple layer chocolate cake with a vanilla buttercream.  I tried something new (for me) and used a star tip to do a pink ombre around the side.  I then topped it with a fondant ribbon sprinkled in pink sugar and cut out the words using gumpaste.  Out of all the cakes I've made, this is in my top 10 favorites.

Of course since its Halloween, I have to share my new favorite black shirt.  I just recently got this in my boutique and I'm tempted to order more in other colors.  It's buttery soft, loose fitting and the criss cross neckline is right on trend.  I may have worn it a few times now!  But it looks great tucked in, on its own or layered up.

I was totally having a mom moment here.  My daughter was throwing a fit off camera so of course my husband had to catch me in action!

Shop my outfit at www.eightelevenboutique.com

And as an added Halloween Treat for all my readers/followers... shop my look and the rest of my website for 31% off today only!  Use discount code: ALLHALLOWSEVE at checkout!

XO - Beth

Halloween Wars

I'm not much for cooking shows, but I'm obsessed with watching Cake/Cupcake Wars.  And at Halloween time, I LOVE to watch Halloween Wars.  What these cake artists can do with pumpkin, sugar and cake blows my mind.  And I wish I had half the talent they do.

The last several years I've been watching this show, and it never gets old.  Each season the detail and displays get crazier and crazier!

My only question... what do they do with all that cake?!

Remember my post a little while ago where I taught a Pinterest Class for the spouse club I'm in?  Well I gave y'all a sneak peek at the cupcakes I made for it.  I mean you can't have a party and not have sweets right?  But then again I'm always looking for an excuse to bake!

I saw these cupcakes on Pinterest while looking up ideas for an upcoming Halloween Party I'm baking for.  And I had to give it a try!

I mean who wouldn't want to take a bite of some bloody glass cupcakes?!

I've never attempted to make sugar glass, but how hard could it be?

The recipe seemed easy enough.  And honestly it was, but it took a little longer (and two batches) than I thought.

To make this all you need is 4 simple ingredients that you can find in your pantry:
- 1 Cup Corn Syrup
- 1/4 Tsp Cream of Tarter
- 3 1/2 Cups of Sugar
- 2 Cups Water

You'll also need a candy thermometer, spatula, pot and a metal cookie sheet.  Throw all four items into the pot and turn on high.  If you start off low/medium, it'll take forever.  So take my word and start on high!

You'll want to stay near your stove, because you need to constantly stir with a rubber spatula.  Make sure to keep your candy thermometer in the pot the whole time to measure the temperature.  Once you hit 300° immediately take it off the burner and pour onto your metal pan so it can cool completely.  After it's cooled, drop the pan on the counter or take a meat hammer and smash it into shards!

For my cupcakes, I kept it simple with a french vanilla cupcake and buttercream.  I piped it using a star tip.  I used red icing with a few drops of brown and thinned it out until it was "soupy" like.  Using a small spoon, I splattered and drizzled it on to give it a bloody look.  Finally I topped it with my "glass" shard.

Needless to say, everyone was a little freaked out and thought I lost my mind!  Once they figured out it was sugar and not real glass they dug in!  I ended up with a few left over and took them home for my kids.  After about 2 days the "glass" melted into the icing.  Darn you humidity!

If you thought these were creepy, stay tuned!  I have a few more Halloween cupcakes to come!

XO - Beth

Hello Purple

I did it!  I mean I finally did it!

For years, I've been working up the guts to do purple in my hair.  I've gone blonde, black, red and every shade of brown that you can think of.  About a year ago I was having an emotional evening, (and yes I was totally PMSing) and ran to Target for some Ben & Jerrys and I grabbed a box of burgundy hair dye.  A pint of ice cream and 2 hours later I had beautiful redish/purple hair.  I loved it, but I wasn't comfortable with the looks people gave me.  Hello I had red and purple hair!

(Get my top here)

(When I had shorter burgundy hair)

I went back to being a brunette, and stayed that way.

Then I met a new friend who just moved to the area and happened to be a hairdresser.  Another friend of mine knew her and raved about her skills.  I was due for a trim (I swear I'm like the worst person when it comes to getting my hair trimmed on a regular basis), and decided to call and make an appointment.

The End!

LOL  Just kidding, but seriously if I had it my way, she'd be my hair stylist from here on out.  But being military, that's just not possible.

Anyways, I was telling her I love purple, but I don't have the guts to put it in my hair.  We decided to ease me into it, buy doing another burgundy in my hair.  But this time she did a faded in look, so I'm still a deep dark brown on top and it fades into burgundy.

And. I. Loved. It!

The best part was, my husband was so in love with the look too, he told me to keep it!

(Get my top here)

As with most hair coloring, it starts to fade.  When I mentioned I was going back to have color put back in, my husband was like go purple!

Spoiler Alert: I did!

I just love how in different lighting the color looks different.  In the shade its has a blueish tone, whereas in the light its more a redish tone.

I've never loved a color more than I do with this color.

(Get my green jacket here)

I find it funny that my lipstick matches my hair!

Have any of you tried a new look out and loved it/hated it?

XO- Beth

Pumpkin Picking

Nothing like a nice crisp Fall day to take the kids and go pumpkin picking right?!  WRONG!!!!  It was hot and windy and so not Fall like!  I was hoping for a nice nip in the air, some hot cider, a cute blanket scarf for the perfect photo op and we got almost 90 degrees and crazy strong winds!

Ohio weather sure is crazy!

But nothing was going to stop my kids from finding their perfect pumpkin!  My daughter was determined she was going to find the right sized perfectly round pumpkin.  She kept tiptoeing over pumpkins saying nope not the right one.  Nope that's not it. Nope. Nope. Nope! lol  I swear we would still be there if we she had her way!  Now my son, well he was opposite, he wanted the biggest and fattest one he could find.  He'd say yup, that's the one, then 5 seconds later, OH MOM I found a bigger one!

After walking to the back of the field and sweating about 10lbs off, I think we all found the ones that were just right for us.  Hunter found his BIG one, Allison her Pretty Round one, while Jeff and I found ones we were pretty happy with.

Get My Look at www.eightelevenboutique.com

All in all the day was hot but memories were made.  We went through a corn maze (and got lost... a lot).  We now have 4 pretty pumpkins and I've got cornstalks and hay bails for my front porch!

Do you decorate your front porch for the Fall?  If so what's your must have item?

Happy Fall Y'all ;)
XO- Beth

Cookies n Cream

Mmmm who doesn't love some Cookies n Cream?

Earlier this month, my husband and I celebrated out 12th Wedding Anniversary.  12 YEARS!  I swear it still feels like we're in our early 20s and going on our first date.  Now we're an "old" married couple.  We finish each other sentences, I drive him crazy with all my hobbies, and he drives me nuts with all her adventures!  But I wouldn't change a thing.

In 12 years we've moved to 4 different states; Idaho, Alaska, Arkansas and now Ohio.  We've welcomed two beautiful, happy and insanely smart children into our family and we've survived 3 military deployments.  None of those were easy.  His first deployment our son was only 5 months old, our 3rd deployment he missed the birth of our daughter.  But if anything it's only made our marriage stronger.

Of course you can't celebrate your anniversary without a cake!!  Or is that just me?  I swear I'll make any excuse to get in my kitchen and bake a cake!  I've seen a cake similar to this on Pinterest and I've been looking for a reason (okay an excuse) to make it.  I had a few other cakes I was baking that weekend for other people and had some left over so figured hey why not!

Since this cake was only going to be just for the four of us, I kept it to a 6 inch cake.  I also tried doing something different and made a marble cake.  Chocolate and Vanilla cake swirled together!  Best of both worlds right?!  For the icing I crumbled up some oreos and layered that inside the cake.  Then I added another layer of simple buttercream on the outside.  Drizzled some chocolate over the top and finished it off with some more oreos.  Let's just say we were all chocolate wasted!

A couple of days before our anniversary a friend of mine posted that she had a stray kitten at her house that her neighbor rescued from nearly being hit by a car.  Unfortunately her neighbor was allergic to cats and my friend just couldn't take in another animal, so she posted her on Facebook looking for a loving home.  We have been looking for a female kitten for a few months now so I should my husband and he told me to go get her!  Since it was the weekend we had to wait until Monday to take her into the vet to ensure she was okay and healthy.  She got a great bill of health, minus having a few belly bugs and that she was only 4 weeks old.

We first named her Channel but after calling her that a few times we realized it didn't suit her.  So we officially renamed her.. wait you'll love this.. Cookie!  Get it.. Cookies n Cream?!?!

I know.... purrrrrfect right?!

All in all we had a perfect weekend spending it with our little family and our newest addition!  We're all still adjusting (our older cat Bella still isn't happy with us) but after 12 years together.. I think my husband and I can handle anything!

Finally the weather has decided to cool off so I can start breaking out my colder weather items.  Sadly the top and cardigan I am wearing are no longer available through my store, but I'm hoping they'll become available again so I can restock them!

Love this necklace?  Stay tuned for a post about it coming soon!

Most of this look is currently out of stock, but feel free to shop other looks at www.eightelevenboutique.com

My kids have tomorrow off from school.. so today is my "Friday" so I'll go ahead and wish y'all a happy weekend!

XO - Beth