It was a sunny day, so after brunch this morning I walked around downtown Novato for a bit with my fam and took pics. I love walking about the Bay Area with my camera this time of year. So many beautiful colors.
Autumn Leaves
Let’s Have a Toast
I went to brunch this morning with El Hub and my in-laws and ordered French toast, aka the breakfast of champions. 🙂
Are you a French toast kinda gal?
Two Ways to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora!
WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Lisa G-L! Congratulations, Lisa G-L! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
It’s hard to believe it’s already October… Halloween is just a couple weeks away. Pumpkins are popping up everywhere, and we actually had our first rains of the season this week.
Not cool, Mother Nature. Not cool. 🙂
A lot of my friends prefer this time of year, the autumn, but I wish we could just have summer all year long. I’m one of those savannah cats that likes the heat more than the cold.
This weekend, I just want to catch my breath, watch a little Revenge on TV and maybe do some shopping for a dining room table.
Yes, I still have an empty dining room after more than three years. Well, except for the cardboard boxes, bags of clothes for donation and the food and water bowls for Tabs. He sort of owns the dining room right now, but I reeeeally want it back.
My in-laws have been visiting for a couple days, so that’s been nice. They’ve been keeping themselves busy during the day while El Hub and I work, but we meet them at night for meals. We went out to dinner to a little Italian place in the very pretty, woodland town of Larkspur last night (Fabrizio’s Ristorante), and in a little while we’re meeting them down the street here in Novato for breakfast at Marvin’s.
You know how it is when people visit from out of town. You eat lots and lots and food.
I hope whatever you’re up to, things are good. Have a great day today, and good luck in this weekend’s Sephora e-gift card giveaway. Talk to you soon. 🙂
What folks are saying…
“Hi Karen. Oh my goodness! I can’t believe I won! :O Thank you so much! You, Tabs, and your blog are amazing! Thank you for keeping me updated on all things beauty and more importantly, for keeping me entertained! Keep doing your thing! Thank you again.”
-Jacqueline“Thanks so much, Karen. Just in case you were wondering what I got with it, I decided to go with the Clarisonic Mia–I’ve been wanting it for years now, but have never purchased it because of the price. Your eCard helped me finally buy it! I look forward to using it. Thanks again!”
-Jane“Shut the front door! OMG Karen, you have made my day. 🙂 I’m sick in bed with the flu and this has just cheered me up immensely!!!!!!!! BTW, I’m the one that sent you that pic of my pug in a wig a few weeks back LOL! Thanks again, honestly, I’m beyond giddy right now.”
-Angel“Oh my goodness! Thank you so much Karen (and Tabs, of course)! I really appreciate this! I’d been eyeing the Anastasia brow pencil in Strawburn to match my red hair!”
-Chelsea (and Jiji the kitten and Quincy the bunny)“Never before have I been so pleased to check my email right before bed!!! Thank you so, so much! I truly enjoy your blog and check it almost daily! Thanks again! This made my night!”
-Melissa, Edmond, OK“Hi Karen. Thank you so much, I’m so excited, I’ve never won anything before. My name is Hana … I just turned 25 (today is my birthday!) Yay! Thank you.”
-Hana
- One (1) Sephora eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (international readers, you may opt to receive $50 sent by PayPal instead).
- There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, what’s your favorite season? Do you like Italian food? Would you ever dye your hair a bright primary color? What’s your current favorite hairstyling product? How do you feel about glitter on your nails? What are you doing this weekend? Have you ever carved a pumpkin? — you get the idea.
- Second, you can enter by following me on
Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
- Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora! http://bit.ly/RlBYsS
- The deadline to enter is Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 11:59PM (PT).
- Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
- A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
- Contest is open to individuals of any country who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
- Sephora eGift Certificates can only be redeemed online and are not valid in stores or available for purchase or redemption in Canada. International winners may opt to substitute the Sephora eGift card prize for $50 sent directly to their email address by PayPal instead.
- Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
- The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Lisa G-L! Congratulations, Lisa G-L! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Tarte Fantastic Foursome
New Favorite Bracelet
A gold-tone leaf cuff by Cam & Zooey. I got it on sale from Haute Look a few weeks ago.
Rachel Weisz: Her Best Hair?
Mrs. Bond, James Bond.
Rachel Hannah Weisz, born March 7, 1970 in Westminster, London, could introduce herself that way. If she wanted to. She is, after all, married to the current 007, blond-haired, blue-eyed Bond Daniel Craig.
Rachel started acting and modeling long before her role as a real-life Bond girl. Her mother, having wanted to act herself, encouraged Rachel’s theatricality and pushed her daughter in that direction. She sent a holiday picture of Rachel to a magazine, which led to Rachel’s first big modeling job.
After graduating with an English degree from Trinity Hall college in Cambridge, Rachel landed a few acting roles on television, but her film break happened in 1996 opposite Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman in Chain Reaction.
Nine years and about 20 movie roles later (two of them with mummies!), she earned an Academy Award for her performance in The Constant Gardener.
This year, Rachel mixed it up with a good-looking spy guy (no, not her husband) in The Bourne Legacy, and next year she works on her witchcraft in Oz: The Great and Powerful.
Loading ...I really like how Rachel plays with length and texture. Wish I had the guts to rock her short, cropped style!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Unsung Heroes: Chanel Poudres Universelle Libre Natural Finish Loose Powder
My buddy Kat was giving me a ride to the airport last week when we got to talking about what I like to call, “The Chanel Effect.”
Whenever I visit a Chanel counter only intending to look, or only planning to get one thing, like a lipstick, or snagging a sample of eye cream, but then one of the makeup artists says, “Here, try this on,” hands me a mirror, and I see in my reflection what can only be described as a makeup miracle, that is The Chanel Effect.
LOL! I made myself laugh… 🙂
I experienced it a few weeks ago with Chanel’s Poudre Universelle Libre in 040 Dore, otherwise known as Chanel Natural Finish Loose Powder.
It was a Saturday afternoon. Bloated and cranky, I’d been buffeted by a monster riptide of hormones, and through a veil of tears, I told El Hub that one of two things was about to happen. Either I was going to go to a Chanel counter right then and there, or I was going to stab him with a fork.
Wisely, he suggested the former.
At the counter, one of the makeup artists talked me into trying Chanel’s $52 Natural Finish Loose Powder, a sheer, light-coverage matte powder.
After seeing myself with it on, I shot the artist a look like, good gawd, woman! I had to do a double take. The girl staring back at me in the mirror looked like she was 26!
No wonder the stuff gets such consistently high marks, despite the price and the fact that it’s only available in three colors.
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You’re Invited to a Grand Ball: A Peek at Dior Holiday 2012 and Dior Grand Bal
When I need to get out of my head for a while, I usually fire up something brainless on TV and plop myself down on the couch.
But sometimes, TV isn’t enough. Sometimes, I need even more escapism than that…like to the drugstore, or the cupcake shop, or the coat section at Nordstrom’s to try on all of the Burberry trench coats I know I’m never, ever going to buy.
Sometimes, though, not even those places are distracting and soothing enough, and at those times, when I need to really, really get away…I go to Dior.
And poof! Just like that, I feel like a different girl.
No more sitting at my desk in sweats, an oversized UC Davis t-shirt and a grandpa sweater with missing buttons. When I’m at a Dior counter playing with makeup, I’m a girl wearing a gown at a fancy ball…
The gown? It’s golden layers of silk and tulle, and through some miracle of light, it doesn’t make me look short. I do all of the fancy ballroom dances, too, like in that scene from the Sound of Music at the Von Trapp house, when the guests are all twirling together, and manage to eat two tiny sandwiches and sip champagne without spilling anything on my dress…
Wait — where was I?
Oh, yeah! Dior. 🙂
