Drugstore Makeup Haul

Hello, 

Gooodmorning (or good whenever you read this)

I just wanted to share a new vlog post that I did on drugstore makeup.

I hope you enjoy!!

xx Larissa

Forever21, H&M, and Marshall's Haul Video

First of all, it's been too long!!

Second of all, I have a youtube channel!! 

I have been working hard to put this together because I thought that I would be able to come across better in a video format.  

Please check it out and subscribe to it!!

Thanks for being patient, and I know it's been awhile, but I hope that you will enjoy my youtube channel and I will continue to post my videos in this blog!

Family Basketball Sesh

hello helllo.

So recently I have been getting back into playing some of the sports that I really enjoyed in high school.  The weather is getting warmer and I have more time since I've been out of school for the summer.  My mom has become my sports partner in crime and honestly, I'm impressed with how well she can keep up at the ripe old age of ---haha I'd be crazy to post her age she would kill me! hah anyways yesterday my whole family was home and we decided to head down to the basketball court and play a game of HORSE, little did we know my mom would be throwing down some major balllla skills.  Check it out for yourself!

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday!

xx Larissa

Texas BBQ Sauce Recipe

Hello!

Happy belated Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans!  I hope all of you had a fabulous time celebrating, I know I did!  Great food, great company, and great fireworks all make a GREAT Fourth of July.  I spent my Fourth of July with my family and we did some bbqing (OBVIOUSLY WE HAD TO).  What is more American that BBQing really?! We make chicken kabobs and RIBS, yum I'm salivating just thinking about the flavors.  For my ribs recipe I just went to my go-to bbq sauce recipe and I thought I'd share that with all of you!  

OUR BBQ!  NOTE the FABULOUS BBQ'd RIBS!

Texas BBQ Sauce

Ingredients

 1 Tbsp. canola oil

 2-3 garlic cloves, minced

 1 cup ketchup

 1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

 Juice of 1 large lemon

 1 chipotle chile from canned chipotle in adobo chilies, minced

 2 tsp. chipotle adobe liquid (from the can of chipotle chilies in adobe sauce)

 Directions

Place oil and garlic in a cold sauce pan.  Turn the heat to medium low heat so that the garlic can infuse into the oil. Stir continuously to make sure the garlic doesn’t burn, about 2 minutes or until the garlic begins to turn a golden color. Stir in all the remaining ingredients and turn the heat up to medium until the sauce simmers.  Let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes, stirring continuously.  Take the sauce off the heat and serve warm or let it chill. Makes about 1 ¼ cups.

The BBQ sauce is really delicious, sweet and tangy, just the way I like it!  Other than ribs, it will work on chicken, beef, pulled pork, or even on grilled veggies. 

So other than BBQ and hang out with my family I saw some great fireworks!  We were heading out of our house to go out to see them when we realized that about five of the homes right in front of our house were lighting them up!  We had a show (FOR A SOLID TWO HOURS) right over our heads! (It made me really want to get to know my neighbors, until it became 1 am and they were still lighting them off! ha)  I was practically screaming the whole time because like those of you who have had fireworks light right over you, they were so loud!  I completely turned into a fascinated three year old, but I had a great time.  That's what's important right?  I really felt proud to be an American and had a fabulous day.  I think it's really a great thing to have pride for where you come from and as my entire street filled smog from the smoke of all the fireworks, I definitely felt that.  I hope everyone else had a great time celebrating, and make sure to try the sauce! 

Here are some of the photo's I snapped of the fireworks on my phone (fireworks are actually really hard to capture on a cell phone!)

xx Larissa

personalized cook book

Hey, sorry it's been so long.

You see I wanted to write sooner, but I couldn't find my camera connecter cord (and it's been hellishly hot). Excuses excuses, but really I've missed writing.  

So last week I had this idea...you see I absolutely love collaging.  I will collage ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.  You leave your things around my house too long and I will return them collaged. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but that's aloud right?  So back to the idea...I had this idea that I wanted to make a cookbook for all my favorite recipes.  Personally, I hate having to bring my computer into the kitchen when I'm cooking and have to keep looking back at it (I would never survive if books were only made in kindle form).  So I thought, why not just print out all my favorite recipes into a collaged notebook.  This way all my recipes are in one place and I don't have to go searching for them online.  What I used is a regular composition notebook, magazine cut-outs, clear contact paper, double-sided tape, and my printer.

How to make it:

-Cut out pictures from magazines.

-Tape them onto the notebook using double-sided tape.

-Cut out your contact paper to the size of each cover, and cut out contact paper to seal all the edges.

-Place contact paper over collaged notebook (contact paper is pretty forgiving and if you don’t like the placement of it the first time it’s not too hard to peel off without doing any damage, but be careful.)

-Once you seal all the edges of the notebook with contact paper give yourself a high five because the hardest part is over!

-Make a table of contents in the first couple pages of the notebook (use roman numerals as the page numbers for the table of contents.)

-Number the remaining pages with regular numbers.

-Print out your favorite recipes and place them in the pages of the book.  (I put contact paper over the recipes inside the book to keep them in place, but you are certainly welcome to use tape.)

-You’re done!

Here are the results:

front cover

back cover

table of contents

recipes

This is a fun project if you have some time on your hands and would make a fabulous gift to give (to someone very special of course)!  If you have any questions let me know and let me know if you plan on doing this project yourself!

xx Larissa

My top five summer television picks!

Although it is now June 25, Seattle still hasn't really come to realize that it's summer (it's pouring rain).  You know what though?  I'm fine with it; I say bring on the rain! I am not really a big fan of warm weather, maybe just living here makes 70 degrees feel like being under an intense heat lamp because most of the year is fairly mild, or maybe I'm just a little wuss (or pansyass whatever you would like to call me).  Anyways my day today consisted of cooking and watching some television.  

I don't know about you guys, but one thing that always is sad about summer is that all of my favorite shows go away and don't come back until the fall.  The past couple of years I have made an effort to find shows that I really like during the summer, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite shows for this summer.  Some are new this year and some have had many seasons, but regardless, I would suggest checking them out!  Here are my top five:

1.  Drop Dead Diva

This show just began its fifth season.  This show is about a model that dies at the same time as a lawyer and comes back in the lawyer’s body.  It is smart, hilarious, and has a really great cast.  The past seasons are available on Netflix, but the current season just aired 6/23 and airs on Lifetime at 9 p.m. pacific time on Sundays. 

2.  Graceland

This show just began its first season.  This show is about a FBI student that graduates and gets placed in a house nicknamed “Graceland” in southern California.  He isn't completely content with his placement, but soon finds out why he is placed here instead of Washington D.C. where he expected to be placed.  It has aired for a few weeks now and has already has completely pulled me in.  I don’t want to give anything away, but do want to state that it is completely unexpected and exciting.  It’s refreshed to actually not know what is going to happen next when you are watching a show and this show completely delivers on that.  I’m so happy to see a show like this (because there are so many different versions of shows like this) actually be really good!  This show is two episodes into the season and airs on USA Network at 10 p.m. pacific time on Thursdays.

3.  Baby Daddy 

This show is in its second season.  This show is about a group of friends mainly, and sort of on the side it is about one of the friends that found out he was the father of a baby and was left to take care of that baby (hence the name of the show baby daddy).  The baby kind of falls to the background of the show though and it is more about the quirky characters and love triangles between them.  This show is purely a guilty pleasure (as most ABC family shows are, but it isn’t as embarrassing as say a Kardashian show).  It has some good laughs and is pretty addicting.  You can watch the first season on Netflix, but the current season is a few episodes in and airs on ABC Family at 8:30 p.m. pacific time on Wednesdays. 

4.  Burn Notice

This show is in its seventh and final season.  If you haven’t seen or heard of this show, it’s a little bit harder to explain.  Basically it is about a burned spy.  The past seasons are on Netflix and the current season has had about two episodes and it airs on USA Network at 9 p.m. on Thursdays. 

5.  Resale Royalty

This show is in its first season.  It is also kind of a guilty pleasure of mine (I mean hello it’s about clothes!)  It’s a reality show about a high end resale clothing shop in St. Louis, Missouri.  It’s just a fun show because there is so much beautiful clothing and it is interesting to see the process of a resale shop.  It is about half way through the season I believe, but on the Style Network they often play previous episodes throughout the week.  New episodes air on the Style Network at 8 p.m. pacific time on Sundays. 

So even though it’s summertime, it doesn’t mean the only option is reruns of New Girl and How I Met Your Mother (even though it is inevitable I will be watching those as well).  These are acutally shows that I really enjoy, so definitely give them a shot and let me know how you like them and what shows you enjoy in the summer!

xx Larissa

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling Book Review

Mindy Kaling is absolutely hilarious; there is no doubt about it.  I am an avid watcher of The Mindy Project (probably a little too avid as I’ve definitely seen all of season one about three times through).  So when I got out of classes and summer break began I knew that I wanted to read her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).  This book is an autobiography, and she writes about herself from the time she was young all the way to when she was a writer for The Office. Let me just say, this book had me LAUGHING OUT LOUD.  Sometimes it was embarrassing, but honestly that is what I want from a book, I just want to really enjoy it.  I found it really interesting to see the path that she took to becoming who she is today, and it was actually really inspiring.  Her writing is so relatable (you might even find yourself going “mmmhmmm” out loud or wanting to read sections to your uninterested dad and brother haha) and I ended up reading this book in two days.  It’s a fast read (it’s only a little over 200 pages) and it’s hard to put it down once you start.  Basically, I just want to recommend this book and give it my highest stamp of approval.  Just a warning though, start reading this book when you have a whole day free because you are not going to want to stop!

Have fun reading!

xx Larissa

P.S. The next book review to come will be on Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close.

P.P.S.  I love when people write a P.S. and I hope that P.P.S. is actually what comes after P.S. J