Ultimate in Jewelry Organization

Hi, my name is Melissa and I'm a home shopping addict! I could watch QVC and HSN all day. Ok, not everything. I hate the jewelry and most of the clothes- but the beauty, craft, home and cooking stuff? YES! I love it! For my beauty gals you should check out the brands that HSN and QVC carry- Laura Gellar, Benefit, Bobbi Brown and Philosophy just to name a few and the deals are quite amazing!

Any who, my bff Ally's mother is also a QVC addict and last Christmas got her this amazing floor length mirror with full jewelry storage. It was quickly added to my Christmas list this year and my mom got it for me and I am in love!!



Lori Grenier Gold & Silver Safekeeper Mirrored Jewelry Cabinet available here for $149

I really love Lori Grenier's stuff and I just had to have this for my jewelry collection. I honestly didn't realize how much jewelry I had until I got this because I had my jewelry all over my room. My collection ranges from Tiffany to Lia Sophia to Forever 21 and i want to keep all of it safe and organized!

This mirror has an anti-tarnish lining that feels like velvet which can keep jewelry tarnish free for up to 40 years! This mirror has:
24 necklace hooks
12 bracelet hooks
1 bracelet rod
7 rows of lined shelves (which I will use for my expanding necklace collection)
Ring tray to hold up to 90 rings
Earring rack to hold up to 91 earrings

Yes ladies, this is a bit pricey, but you will be able to fit everything in here and know that it's protected! It's really important to store fine jewelry out of direct sunlight and away from the elements and this is a stylish and functional way to do so. The mirror is available as a floor standing model (which I have) or a wall mounted model and they are both the same price.

Here's an inside peek at the storage and my jewelry collection:



Open Seaseme


Pocket for necklaces and a close up pic to show you the material


Bottom necklace hooks


Bracelet Rod and Hooks- one of my fave features


Earrings- danglies and hook back earrings


Shelves and Cubbies


Top Necklace hook with pocket


Rings- Also where I keep my post (stud) earrings

Birthday Love

I really have some amazing friends- in New York and my blogger loves around the country. I just want to thank everyone who sent me a birthday wish and birthday love. I love you ladies!!

BFF Love:

My BFF Anthony and I never really do birthday or Christmas gifts. However, I'm the first of our group to turn 25, so he figured this is a big birthday to celebrate. So big, I even got to celebrate it with a certain blue bag.




He got me an Elsa Peretti necklace from Tiffany!! Needless to say I was THRILLED.

Danielle got me the birthday girl set from Philosophy!! We went to Sephora before Christmas and smelled all the Philosophy stuff and now she bought me my first Philosophy items!! The set came with Soul Owner Foot Scrub, Time On Your Hand Hand Cream, Amazing Grace 3 in 1 and Purity Made Simple! I am s0o0o0o friggin excited to try these out and review them for you- especially Purity Made Simple!!




My bff Ally got me the funniest present. Whenever we have a girls night it's always the same thing- wine, talking about books and gossiping. So she got me a bottle of wine, a gossip themed wine glass and two books! Perfecto!



Blogger Love:

I was the winner of Juli of Sanctuary Jewelry's give away! It's not a birthday present, but since it was right around my birthday I am going to consider it that lol. The bars were YUMMO and the necklace is all ready a regular in my rotation.



My Tammy-ness sent me a fabulous birthday package. I officially call her my "Sheet Mask Pimp" lol. She sent me three Face Shop Sheet masks (Pearl and CO-Q10), the Face Shop clear acne patches (which are AMAZZZINNG), the ELF Beauty Encyclopedia Eye Palette, a Rimmel glose, and my first two Physicians Formula products. Of course lolipops are a staple lol.



The lovely Iyah sent me the sweetest smelling birthday package. She sent me two gorgeous necklaces (these colors make me want summer SO bad), two mini anti-bac lotions (how friggin cute are these??!), a hand lotion in P.S. I love You (soo yummy), a chocolate lip gloss, candies and the most delicious smelling Jasmine Soap. I put the soap in with my undies to keep everything smelling yummy!




THANK YOU SOOO MUCH MY LOVELIES! It means so much to me!! Love you!!

Turning the big 2-5

January 15th was my..UGH I HATE SAYING IT, 25th birthday. The big 2-5. It's weird, I hate saying that I'm 25, but I'm looking forward to getting older. I just got my masters, don't have my career yet and still live at home. I'm looking forward to like age 27 where Jason and I will FINALLY be together, I'll be working and happy and have an apartment of my own to decorate.

Last Saturday my friends and I went out to this restaurant/ loungey place by me called Vintage. The place was recently re-done and it looked s0o0o nice. I swear, I always forget to take pics of food, I'm such a bad blogger!! I had the penne capri- penna with a light tomato sauce and mozerella...sooooo good!

I invited a lot more people to my party, but only my very best friends showed up. I called this the VIP party.



The blonde is my friend Danielle and the brunette is my bff since we were 5-Ally. Looking at all these pics made me realize what terrible posture I have lol. That has officially become my number one resolution-work on my posture.



The girl on my right is my friend "Momo". She stopped by for a few minutes because she had two other parties to go to that night- busy lady lol. The boy sitting next to me his my very best friend, my brother- Anthony. He is by far the funniest person I ever have and ever will meet. Sitting next to him, is his lil' sis another one of my bff's, Mamita.



I like NEVER EVER drink. I'll drink a glass of wine or two and then I cut myself off, so for me to do a shot it was a big deal lol. But..jolly rancher shot? YUMMO


I had a fantastic night with a fantastic group of friends! The highlight of the night was a game we invented "Jersey Shore". How many people walked by would be a new cast addition to the show Jersey Shore. Unfortunately in White Plains, New York, more than half the bar looked like they belonged on that show lol.

Neutrogena Wave Review-EDIT

My mom got me a Neutrogena Wave for a stocking stuffer for Christmas. I was really excited to get this, because I had read some decent reviews on this product on blogs and Makeup Alley. The package comes with one Wave, 14 cleansing pads and two batteries.



I had all ready determined that I wasn't going to use this daily, just a couple times a week. I don't like to over exfoliate because I have really sensitive skin, plus the cleansing pads have salicylic acid in them which is drying for me.

I opened it the night I wanted to use it and I don't know if it as just mine or what, but I needed like the power of she-hulk to open up the damn battery thing! It took myself, my mom and my mom's boyfriend to finally get it open.

It's a pretty small device and can be brought into the shower.





To put on the cleansing pads you simply push them down onto the top. The top has these prickly little "fingers" that keep the pad on the device. The pads are only one time use, which is another reason I don't use this every day.

There are two cleansing speeds, regular and deep clean. To change the speed you simply press the speed button on the device. I find that the deep cleaning speed is a little too harsh for my sensitive skin.

After using this product only once, it's really amazing how smooth my skin felt immediately afterwards. It also does an amazing job at taking off all my face make up. Do I notice a difference in pore size or skin luminosity? Not really, but I love the feeling of it so much that this will definitely be a part of my skin care routine.

EDIT

My love, Pop Champagne asked if you could use your own cleanser with these pads. Unfortunately you can't. There is s deep cleaning wash on the pads and the refill pads have three options: deep cleaning, deep exfoliation and acne wash..which all come with cleansers all ready on them.

Price: $12-$17 for the Device
Refill pads: $7-$9 for 30
Where to buy: Drugstores, Target, Walmart, Drugstore.com
Would I buy again: Yess!!

CVS 75% Off Haul

After reading about Van's 75% off haulage from CVS I had to get my butt over there. I was really surprised that they still had a lot of stuff left. I'm trying to cut down on my make up purchases though so I only picked out a few items. Luckily, I'm super happy with all of the items and paid a total $8 for 4 Revlon items!




Revlon Matte Shadow in Venetian Blue
Revlon Colorstay Soft and Smooth lippies in Blushios and Plush Peony
Eye Make up Eraser Pen
Revlon Beyond Natural Defining Mascara

Swatches:
Venetian Blue
Blushious
Plush Peony



Shadow Review:
I read previous reviews on these shadows that said they were a bit chalky, but I was quite impressed with the shadow. It is a bit on the chalky side, but over a primer it glides on smoothly and the pigmentation is really impressive. I think I'd even pay the $5 full price for this one lol.

Lippies Review:
I really like these lippies too, over a lip balm they aren't drying and are decently long lasting. However, the Blushious color doesn't look too hot with my non-white teeth. I just purchased the Crest Advanced Seal Whitening Strips, so I'll probably use this more after I finish that regiment.

Eye Make up Eraser Pen Review:
I LOVE this product. I wish I bought two, so I could keep one in my purse and one with my makeup! This product is awesome and is perfect to fix mistakes and smudges. It dispenses the right amount of product so it doesn't leave your eyes damp or anything or runs to your other make up. Seriously, everyone should have this to carry around with them to fix mid-afternoon smudges!

I haven't tried the mascara yet. I only use one mascara at a time since they expire so quickly.

Make up Organization

So after watching tons of Youtube vids on Makeup organization and storage, I decided to do some re-organizing of my own. I purchased a large three-drawer plastic thingie from Walmart and a set of small storage baskets from Walmart also. I moved things around and tried different basket combos and everything and well I hate it. I think I'll keep it though until I can head to Ikea to pick up the Fira for $15.



Before pics:



My skincare was in the Tiffany bag and all of my make up was in one of the two sets of drawers. It was my organized chaos.


New and not improved:


The set up


My face stuff-foundations, concealers


Blushes, bronzers and highlighters


Single shadows, ELF Quads, Liners, Mascaras and NYX Jumbo Pencils


Shadow samples, Palettes and Cream Shadows


Lipglosses and Balms


Lashes and Adhesives



So this lesson taught me that bigger isn't always better and sometimes being over organized doesn't really help. I really want to get the FIRA as I think most of my stuff will actually be able to fit in one.

I'm going to try to start doing videos every now and then. I know I have a super small collection, but let me know if anyone would like a collection video. If not, I'm working on a video for the ultimate in jewelry organization. This organization system is a winner!

Sanctuary Jewelry

I received my earrings today from Juli of Sanctuary Jewelry and I am so in love with them. I rarely wear dangling earrings, I usually stick to studs and hoops, so this is a fun change for me. I'm also soo happy that I won her 40 follower contest! I can't wait to receive my goodies, especially that gorgeous necklace!


NSE16- $5


NSE20- $4


S151- $6

Notice how I'm covering my left side in all the pics? Yeah, major break out lol.


I was so impressed with Juli's work and prices that I asked if I could give her a mini interview. She agreed!

1. How did you get into jewelry making?

I got into jewelry making because I had so much free times on my hands, I wanted to take on a new hobby. As I was browsing the internet, I saw that quite a number of people made their own jewelry, so I decided that would be a nice hobby to try. And I love it =D It will be a year since I've started in February.

2. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Inspiration comes from myself and my mom! And the hope that maybe someday I'll get well known..perhaps..(unlikely, but hey, you never know!!)

3. What's your full time job and other hobbies?

I'm a student if that counts! :P I also do babysitting here and there, along with a few other "side" things haha. I still live with my parents, so it's definitely a good thing financially. I've worked a few jobs in retail (Target...a clothing store...Toys R Us) oh gosh, I HATED it! :P I started drawing in middle school, but for some reason I haven't done much of that since I graduated high school. Does loving to keep my car clean count as a hobby? hahaha. What about collecting DVDs? :P I'm not too interesting! I'm probably going to start playing tennis with my boyfriend often :] We're both signing up for the gym (okay, he has already this past week, and I'm using a free trial)..sooo..exercise as a hobby soon! We'll see, I'm so lazy lol.

4. Any advice for those who want to get into making jewelry?

Overall, it's a very nice hobby. You can express yourself through designs you personally thought up of yourself, just as you would with your fashion or makeup style (I think the way people dress says a lot about themselves).
Some pieces will take more time than others, so patience is a key. I honestly don't have too much patience on certain subjects, and I've learned how to be more patient with the jewelry pieces that can take 1 hour+ to make. When you finish, it feels so good :] And when people purchase your work, then contact you when they got it, saying how much they love it, how beautiful it is...it's an awesome feeling. I love to know that there are people out there who appreciate what I make enough to buy it and wear it.
It can be pricey when you don't have any buyers! Just like any biz, if you plan to start a biz with jewelry, you need to set aside money when you first start, even after you start to get into it, maybe. There are tons of tutorials of how to's online and books, but honestly, I self taught myself how to make jewelry =D I only needed to look up a few things such as.. "how to wire wrap a tear drop."

Giveaway-Jewelry for January!

So the lovely Iyah introduced me to Sanctuary Jewelry. After seeing her pieces and her prices, I ordered three pairs of earrings right away. Her stuff is really gorgeous and I'll be posting pics of what I get as soon as I receive them!

When Juli, the owner, reaches 40 followers (she's at 36 now!) she's going to have a cute giveaway with some fab pieces! I'm dying for the necklace in the giveaway. In order to enter the giveaway just become a follower and post about the giveaway on your blog. Honestly, if you can go to the site with out ordering anything, you have better willpower then I do lol.

Apartment Therapy

I am almost 25 years old and I still live at home. Yes, even typing it makes me sad. However, I've had the opportunity to save so much money while living at home and working, that I guess it's really worth it.

However, I dream, almost daily, about having an apartment or house of my own to decorate and buy furniture for. I'm all ready side seat decorating Jason's apartment here in ATL.

While looking up some information on framing, I found my new fave site, Apartment Therapy. Apartment Therapy is like a blog for those interested in DIY projects for the home and good buys. The site also has special pages for big cities like NYC, San Fran, LA, Chicago, DC and Boston to find local retailers.

As I've stated before (you're probably sick of reading it), I want to be like Martha Stewart one day, so the DIY section of this site really gets my gears going lol. Some of my fave projects:

Room Divider



Flokati Doggie Bed



Terranium Jar