Makeup - tip of the day

Always wear mascara! I use to be one that would put on my eye shadow and eye liner but either forget or just didn't feel like putting on mascara. Well I know now from a good friend of mine, that mascara does make a difference. So now I always wear mascara. I'm not very picky about which brands I wear either, mainly because I was blessed with long eye lashes, but if anyone has any they can recommend I would really appreciate that. I'm always up for trying different brands. Thanks in advance!

Shrimp Ceviche

I love to cook. For those that know me know that I love to cook. I especially love spicy food! The other night I made Shrimp Ceviche for dinner along with my super duper spicy roasted tomato salsa. I know some of you have been waiting for my recipe, but its pretty simple. I have always cooked by trial and error, season to taste, so my recipe and directions aren't from a professional stance. Hopefully it all makes sense to you guys hehe. Enjoy!


Shrimp Ceviche and Roasted Tomato Salsa

Shrimp Ceviche

Makeup - tip of the day

I don't have the lightest skin color, so it's a little bit tough for colors to stay or show on my face. So, with that in mind, I've learned that eye lid primer is a must have! It helps keep the eye shadow to last all day and the colors stand out just a little bit more. I also like to dip my brush in water and then dip it into the eye shadow and then apply. I've heard that you could use contact solution instead of water because it prevents cracking, but I am not sure how that all works. Water has always worked fine for me. Anyway, if you get bored, play with makeup! =)

Aeropostale and P.S.

Aeropostale and P.S. by Aeropostle are having a weekend sale from 11/11-11/14. Click on the Aeropostale banner on the left side of my page and use coupon code NOVECLEAR for 30% off, plus you get free shipping if you spend over $100. Happy Shopping!

Makeup - tip of the day

I always tell my friends when applying eye shadow its all about BLENDING. That was the same advice given to me by one of my good friend, and it so true! Blending is a must do. You can make any eye shadow look good as long as your are blending. Also, make sure you use at least 3 colors, a base color, contour color and a highlighter.

Aeropostle and P.S.

I love getting coupons from my advertisers! Here's one from Aeropostle and P.S., use the promo code KICKOFF20 when you purchase $100 or more you get 20% off plus free shipping! Click on the Aeropostle link on my page and browse around. Happy Shopping!

Kmart Coupons

I am now an affiliate of Kmart.com and just received some coupons from them. Perfect for Christmas shopping. Just click on the links below. Happy Shopping!



1-Day Only Family & Friends! EXTRA 5-20% off Almost Everything on Reg, Sale & Clearance Items 11/7


Family & Friends! EXTRA 20% off Clothing, Shoes, Jewelry, Baby Furniture & Gear and Accessories 11/7


1-Day Family & Friends! EXTRA 10% off Electronics, Entertainment, Office Products & Magazines 11/7


1-Day Only Family & Friends! EXTRA 10% off For the Home, Bed & Bath, Seasonal, Pets & Health 11/7


1-Day Family & Friends! EXTRA 10% off Fitness, Sporting Goods, Tools, Toys, Automotive & Beauty 11/7

1-Day Only Family & Friends! EXTRA 10% off Small Kitchen Appliances and Food & Grocery 11/7


Family & Friends Online Only EXTRA 5% off Grills, Patio Furniture, Lawn & Garden, Outdoor Décor 11/7


Family & Friends Online Only EXTRA 5% off Trampolines, Swing Sets & Fisher Price Ride-On Toys 11/7

Folica

Anyone ever order from Folica.com?? I have, and love it! I just got an email from them giving away a mini Sedu Flat Iron. The exact same one I bought about a year ago and absolutely love it. It doesn't pull your hair like the one you buy from the mall cart, Corioliss, which I also have and absolutely hate. The Sedu Mini is so awesoome, you can set the temperature, which is a must have when purchasing a flat iron because you don't want to be stuck with just an on/off switch, and you can curl your hair with it as well.  Anyway, if you purchase $75.00 worth of hair products, they give you a flat iron free, when I bought it, it was $100 bucks, and you get free shipping! Click on the Folica link on the left side of my page and you can use the SEDUGIFT coupon code. Hurry offer ends on 11/12. Happy shopping!

AMI Club Wear

Have told you how much I love browsing through AMI Club Wear?? Think of it as a Forever 21, just online and super cheap prices! Anyway, just thought I'd share a coupon with everyone. Enter code HLW40 to get 40% off the entire site! This is by far the best coupon I've come across. Click on the banner below and start browsing. Happy shopping!

AMI Club Wear

If you were wondering why I have certain ads posted on my blog, well its because I became affiliates of some companies. Therefore I promote them on my blog and get a reward when people purchase from them through one of my ads on my blog. Pretty neat actually. They also send me promotions that I can share with everyone.

I love AMI Club Wear. They have the best deals on everything from shoes, dresses, tops, bottoms to accessories, costumes. They always have great deals. So check the out ladies!

Enter coupon code GLAM35 to get 35% off your entire order. Hurry cause it expires 10/21/10!

Cake Pops

So, my friend sent me a text message the other night to tell me to check out this website she found. It is awesome, its about cake pops and ideas and instructions on how to make creative treats! I totally want to buy the book Angie Dudley and Bakerella produced. Such a must have during the holiday seasons. It could be cost efficient to make treats and give them out and then people won't feel left out that you didn't buy them a present or something. Its also great for wedding favor ideas, which I'm on the look out for, and great baby shower favor ideas. Who doesn't love treats? Anyway, definitely check out Bakerella, for some nifty ideas.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Chicken Wings

So the other night my cousin Anna and I made stuffed chicken wings. I know, at first I asked her "how the hell do you stuff a chicken wing??" lol. Well it wasn't very easy, first we chopped off the smallest part of the wing, then dug our fingers in and took out the bone from the wing. Very difficult task to do. Then we proceeded to stuff the chicken wing with our homemade pork stuffing. After probably about an hour of working hard we were finished! I fried some and she baked some, they were both delicious! Hard work really pays off.

I'll post up a recipe as soon as I put it together. When Anna and I cook, we  usually just wing it. Use our usual marination recipes and it all works out at the end.

Edited: Here's the link to the Stuffed Chicken Recipe. Enjoy!

E.L.F. Cosmetics

So I know a lot of girls out there that LOVE make up, including me. But sometimes when you're in a pinch and can't afford your usual collection, I recommend the E.L.F. Cosmetics line. They are incredibly inexpensive, their regular line which is now sold in stores like Target, is pretty awesome. I mean it gets the job done for daily wear. I myself ordered items from their Studio Line, and my favorite item is their Minty Lip Gloss, which has a little bit of a minty flavor to it and sparkles. I also love the E.L.F. Blushes, actually I love everything in their studio line. If you know how to apply makeup, then you can definitely make E.L.F look good on you. I always tell my friends "its all about the blending...blend blend blend is the trick".

Anyway, click on the ad below and check out their items. Below are some coupon codes for a great discount when you order online, more will be posted when I receive or find more. You can only use one though and some expire tomorrow, so ladies chose your weapon of choice. Happy shopping!

Enter coupon code CABINELF for 50% off your entire order, max discount $7.50. (expires 10/31/10)
Enter coupon code SAVINGSELF for 50% off your entire order, max discount $7.50 (expires 12/31/10)
Enter coupon code DEALTAKER for buy one get one 50% off ELF Studio Line. (expires 10/18/10)
Enter coupon code SHADOWSTOO for buy 2 ELF Studio eye shadows and get one free.
Enter coupon code SHIP for free shipping, ends tonight at midgnight. (expires 10/11/10 @ midnight)

www.eyeslipsface.com

Holiday Baking

Since I left my last post about winter baking, I started looking through my recipes and thought I would share them.

The first one is for an Apple Crisp. This one is for all you apple pie lovers who either don't have the time or patience to bake a whole pie. Its fairly simple and super delicious especially if you're in pinch and just want to satisfy a craving for apple pie. Unfortunately I don't have a recent picture for this specific recipe, hopefully I'll make it again and take a picture and post it up. Anyway, click on the link below and another page should pop up my recipe.

Apple Crisp

This next recipe is called a Sweetheart Cookie. Its a jam filled cookie sandwich dusted with powered sugar. Its perfect for Valentines Day or Holiday baking. You choose the shapes you want to make the cookies, heats, circles, squares, flowers, Christmas trees, whatever your little heart desires.

Sweetheart Cookies

Hope ya'll enjoy! I have so many more recipes to post, but that will have to wait for another day. Thanks for reading!

Winter Baking

Who loves the Fall/Winter seasons?? ME!! I love all the fall smells and colors and love all the winter desserts. On that note, I decided to put up a recipe for some Molasses Cookies. I found this recipe online but had to tweak it a little bit to my liking.

Molasses Cookies: Makes about 2 dozen (depending on how much dough you use to form a ball).


3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar (or white sugar, but I prefer brown sugar in these cookies)
1 Egg
1/4 cup Molasses
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup white sugar for dusting

- In a large bowl, melt the butter and mix in brown sugar (or white sugar) and 1 egg. Beat until smooth.
- Stir Molasses into the butter mixture.
- In another bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger.
- Stir in the Molasses mixture into the flour mixture until combined. (here is where I added another 1/4 cup of flour because I felt the dough was a little too sticky.)
- Cover dough and chill for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
- Lightly grease cookie sheet with some Pam spray. ( I didn't do this but I should have because my cookies stuck to my cookie sheet, so from experience, I would lightly grease the cookie sheet.)
-  Roll dough into a ball the size of a walnut, or larger, whatever your preference may be.
- Roll the balls into the 1/2 cup of sugar and place onto cookie sheet.
Here you can choose to flatten your ball of dough a little bit. I chose not to because I like my cookies a little bit thicker and chewier. I also didn't roll all of my ball of dough into the extra white sugar, instead I baked the cookies and then dusted them with powdered sugar. Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes, add a little more time if you want to have crunchier cookies, or shorten the time if you want to have chewier cookies.

Hope ya'll enjoy! More recipe's to come.

Molasses Cookies

Trip to Seattle (9/25/10-9/26/10)

So this last weekend my husband and I, along with a bunch of friends, ventured off to Seattle to watch the Chargers vs Seattle game. We saw a few of the Charger players in down town Seattle, which was great, made the weekend more exciting and got us pumped for the game, we lost by a touchdown but we won't get into that.

We stayed at Hyatt Place Seattle, love this hotel. Our room had a huge flat screen TV, with a separate living room with a nice L-Shape couch with an ottoman. I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone who is traveling up to Seattle.

Even though we barely had time to do much site seeing, we did get to walk around at Pike's Place Market and saw a lot of retailers selling and marketing their products. From flowers to jewelry to home made items to fresh fruits and vegetables, there were a lot of vendors selling a lot of pretty neat things. But this metal art  display called MetalCraft caught my eyes the most. They make the most amazing hand-made metal art. Check out their website and browse through their art.

We were aslo able to see the fish market employees throwing fish around, it was awesome. We didn't get to check out many seafood restaurants, although I wish we could of. We ended up eating at The Brooklyn, which was a Seafood, Steak & Oyster House. We made it just in time for happy hour which is from 3pm-6m. Oyster happy hour there was delicious and you can't really beat $1 per oyster. The food there was very tasty, a little bit on the pricey side if you were going to sit down for dinner but what steak and seafood house is cheap?

Anyway, just thought I'd share my travel opportunities.

                                              

A little about me...

You know, I never really know what to write in these "about me" sections. But here it goes. I am 27 years old, born and raised in good ol' Escondido, CA. I'm married, to the best husband ever, and we have 3 beautiful boys. Markus, my oldest, is 7 and will be 8 in December and his twin brothers Brody and Chayse just turned 2 in August.

I love to cook and bake, well at least I try to. I'm a stay a home mom, so I need something to do to occupy my time. I also love to read, I just finished the Sookie Stackhouse Vampire series (I know everyone is into vampires these days hehe). Arts and Crafts is another one of my favorites. My all time favorite and number one love is hair and makeup. Although I am not a professional, I like to play and a lot of my friends come to me for hair color, touch ups, make up application. The only thing I haven't done is cut hair... In time I will amount to that level.

Well I believe that about sums up my "about me" section. I hope you guys enjoyed it! Soon I will be adding more blogs, random blogs, recipes to my favorite dishes and things like that. So stay tuned! =)

Ulta Gift Card - Giveaway

So, I know many of you know what Ulta is. For those of you who don't, Ulta is a retail store similar to Sephora. I believe  they both have some of the same brands and different brands. Anyway, I was rummaging through my too full wallet and found an Ulta gift card. So I look up to see  how much the balance was and it still had $20! On that note, I decided that I would do a gift card giveaway. I took some pictures of the card and number and did a print screen of the card balance, not to worry though I blurred out a lot of the numbers in case someone tried to be sneaky :-). Anyway, check out the rules and pics below. Good luck to everyone!

Ulta Gift Card Giveaway

What: $20.00 Ulta Gift Card

When: May 1, 2011 to May 15, 2011 (5:00 p.m. Pacific Time is the deadline!)

How to Enter:

1.) "Like" the giveaway link that I will be posting on the Beautiful Inside and Out Facebook Page. You can like it as many times as I post it. One "like" equals one entry. (That means you would have to "like" this group in order to participate, don't worry it is open to the public :-))

2.) Subscribe to my blog, Beautiful Inside and Out, and please make sure you comment on this giveaway post to let me know that you have subscribed by email or your entry will not count. So please make sure you subscribe AND comment on this post. For this you'll receive 5 one time entries.

3.) Follow me on my blog, Breen Life, with GFC (Google Friend Connect) and you will receive 3 one time entries. For those of you who are already on my followers list, you will receive 3 one time entries unless you email me to let me know that you decline to be in this giveaway.

I will choose a winner via Random.org on May 15, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The winner will receive an email stating that they won this giveaway and will have 2 days to respond. If the winner does not respond to me with their mailing address with in 2 days then I will chose another winner. Once the winner has acknowledge that they have won, then I will post the winner in both of my blogs, Beautiful Inside and Out and Breen Life and the Beautiful Inside and Out Facebook Page.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at sammiesweeps@gmail.com

**This giveaway is open to everyone in the United States, and United States Territories, only because Ulta does not ship internationally. I apologize for my international peers, but don't worry, there will be more giveaways!**