How to use an oval makeup brush to apply powder foundation

I have been having the weirdest finish to my powder foundation lately. My skin has changed and so has the seasons so I needed a solution. This oval makeup brush is my solution! It buffs on the powder so well that I no longer have the weird finish that I was getting. It was cake-y and also showing all my dry skin and it was just no good no mater what brand of powder I tried. In this video I show you how I use a large oval makeup brush to apply my foundation and I have a little review on my new favorite mascara.

To watch the video directly on youtube click HERE.

This video and post is not sponsored or anything, I just wanted to share how this was working for me.

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Gluten Free Oat Flour Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hey everyone! Today I am sharing one of my favorite recipes with you! These cookies are so yummy! They turn out so good! Always gooie, chewy, soft, and so, so very chocolaty. This recipe was adapted from my favorite chocolate chip recipe that uses oat flour. You can find that recipe HERE. 

My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe uses oat flour and turns out absolutely perfect every time! I adapted it to have cocoa powder because I couldn't find a chocolate, chocolate chip recipe that uses oat flour. The oat flour doesn't make it taste like an oatmeal cookie, but gives a subtle sweetness and tenderness while still holding together nicely. So, so much better than any other gluten free flour. 

Anyway, All I did was replace a cup of the oat flour for cocoa powder, and I like to use pink Himalayan salt in these. I also use high quality chocolate chips and I like to use big ones and little tiny ones when I have them because it's more fun that way. 

Melt the butter, but not quite all the way then beat with the sugars. I like to add the vanilla in here. Then beat in the egg, but not all the way. Beating the egg to much can make the cookies a bit tough. 

Add in the dry ingredients Until just combined. You don't really need to worry about over mixing since their is no gluten, but I find them to stay a little softer when I don't over mix with the spoon. Instead I finish mixing it all the way when I add in the chocolate chips. 

 Usually when my son helps me though, the chocolate chips get added in with all the dry ingredients because that's his favorite part. 

 I always flatten them out. If I don't then I need to make sure they do so on their own while they bake, or I have to help them along by pressing them down with the back of a spoon. 

But I always have to do that with cookies, I used to not need to, but ever since I started using other ovens I've had to. Do you have to do that, or does dolling them out work just fine for you? 

I actually used to have the problem of them being to thin because I would always melt the butter (using a basic chocolate chip recipe) and changing nothing other than using a different oven they no longer do that. Except I've made cookies in that old oven again and I still had to flatten them out. So... I do not know. 

Anyway, they turn out so, so good! 

GF Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Makes 1 1/2 dozen cookies

1 stick butter, partially melted
1/2 cup turbanado sugar
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 egg
1 tsp to 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1 1/4 cup oat flour 
1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips 

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. 

Melt a bit over halfway then mix together with the sugars. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until just incorporated.  Sift the flour and cocoa powder then mix in all the dry ingredients reserving the chocolate chips.  Mix until it just starts to come together then add in the chocolate chips. The dough will be a bit sticky and thats just fine. Bake on greased baking sheets for about 10 minutes or until the edges are just browning up. They need to still be soft on the inside so that they will stay gooie and have that brownie flavor.

Mmmmmmmm.

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Polymer Clay Bowl DIY

I haven't used polymer clay for a few years. The last time was when I was making things for terrariums and it wasn't quite what I wanted. Back then I thought you only used colored ones, I didn't know you could paint and glaze it! This was so much more fun! This is a very simple diy that I made for when I want to separate out some succulent and cactus starts. So I made  little echeveria to go on top to show kind of what it would look like with a real plant in it. But I suppose now I have a fake plant that I don't need to take care of. (It's very strange.) I made two bowls, the echeveria, and some beads for my weaving projects out of one package of clay. I was really surprised with the results and the quality, especially since I only somewhat new what to do. But when I was reading up on polymer clay it seemed to me that you could use it very easily with a multitude of mediums. I'm very interested to see how watercolors work on it. 

I used the sculpey brand, it was the cheapest on amazon with good reviews and I had a great experience with it. I hardly used any glaze so that should last me for a lot of projects. 

I also used basic metallic craft paints and some black craft paint (plus some greens and yellow for the echeveria.) And of course a few paintbrushes. I also needed a small sheet pan that I lined with wax paper just to protect the pan while I baked the clay.  

First I just took about three lines of the clay and broke it off. 

Then I just worked it all together until it was incorporated well. 

Then I smoothed it out into a nice ball.

Next I just used my thumb to push an indent in.

Then I used my thumb and forefinger to pinch around the sides. I mean, really I'm just making a small pinch pot. 

Here I am just smoothening out the edges and evening them up. I wanted them to have texture so I didn't make them fully smooth, but I didn't want any crevices for soil to get stuck in. 

Now in this picture I'm using my thumb to press down to make a wider bottom. 

I flipped it over to smoothen out the bottom and the lower sides. 

Last I took a paintbrush end and made a drainage hole. 

You can skip this step if you are using this for something other than a live plant. Or if you have an air plant, you can skip this step too. 

Now I'm starting on the Echeveria. 

First I made five balls of clay about the same size, then five more a bit smaller, then five more a bit smaller again. 

Then I formed the leaves.

I stuck them together doing the biggest five first. I used a paintbrush to help press down the ends together. 

Here is the last of the first fifteen that I made all pressed to the other two layers. 

Then I took three little bits and added them to the top. I used a stiff paintbrush (using the brush end this time) to push in the cracks and to smoothen out bumps.

I also made some beads by  rolling clay into balls and sticking a paintbrush through them. 

I set all the clay projects on a small baking pan lined with wax paper to protect the pan and baked them in the toaster oven. My directions said to bake for 1/4 in thickness, so I doubled the time since most everything was thicker than that. The echeveria did just fine in the spots that were thinner. 

After they were done baking and had cooled I drew designs on the bowls with a pencil, and then painted everything. I did use a few shades of green on the echeveria to mimic a real plant, but it would have been neat to use a different color like a purple with some red. 

After I painted everything I put them all on the tray to glaze them. Glazing the top first, letting it dry, then glazing the bottom and repeating. I put the beads on paintbrushes to glaze them. 

The second pot I made was just a bit smaller than the first one, but its still a good size for mini succulents to even get to be a decent size. 

Here you can see the difference in size between the small pot...

and the bigger pot. 

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We got a farm cat!... Kind of.

About two, maybe three weeks ago, I was outside, and their was this cat! She was a bit skittish but she was soooo sweet! Now that she has been around awhile she has gotten even sweeter! She's kind of a dope too. And by dope I mean she falls off of things, and she will sit with one leg hanging of the table, and she will be totally fine with a three year old boy yelling and jumping and waving sticks around (attempting to impress her) but when he make a very quiet indescribable almost growling mucus noise with the hose to the ball pump, she flees is fear. Although, she does seem mildly and sometimes very impressed with Thomas' (the previously mentioned three year old) antics. Which is odd in and of itself. 

So basically she is perfect. Except she lives in our crawl space. Did I mention their is a mummified cat under our house too? My husband found it while working down there. Maybe she likes the company? I'm not sure, but what I'm sure of is that she needs to not go into heat and bring all her friends over to party down there. (We're getting her fixed soon.)

Also I made a cake this week and it was pretty so I took pictures. 

I made it with xylitol and maple syrup because I have been in a baking mood and I didn't want to get sick off of all the deliciousness. It turned out so pretty though! It's basically the hershey's special chocolate cake but with like 1/2 cup of xylitol and 1/2 cup maple syrup instead of 2 cups sugar. Oh, and with cream cheese frosting because I wanted it to be pretty. Also, I used natural sprinkles and they worked really well. They didn't bleed at all! They sure as heck did when I messed up on those cupcake bath bombs, oh man!!!! (I added glycerin to them and they exploded. [not like nitro glycerin explosion, more like a very slow volcano experiment.])

Did I mention this is the first cake I've ever made like this that turned out remotely good looking? Thats Why I'm making such a big deal about a not particularly spectacular cake.


We harvested our first carrots out of our garden! The aphids and the birds kept eating them so I had to plant them twice and still only ended up with six! They were so good, but probably not worth the effort, haha! Also they all ended up with legs. Obviously my soil needs a lot of work. (Rocks and compacted soil make them have multiple roots.)

 The cat again! Well and me. Thomas loves taking pictures so you get one with me in it for once!

Lastly, I've been getting into weaving. I need to make a loom but I wanted to try it out so I used an embroidery hoop. It was way more fun than I thought it would be. I'm really looking forward to trying some new stitches. Is it called stitches or weaves, or what?

Anyhoodles, I might have something more interesting next week, like a healthy ice-cream recipe or something. OOOOO! Or candles!! 

I post a video and a blog every week, if you want new posts emailed to you then don't forget to subscribe over on the side ->

How to make kombucha without a scoby.

I like to make my Kombucha from a fresh start every year. I don't drink that much kombucha during the winter, so when it starts getting warm I just buy a bottle of plain kombucha to start a new batch. From their I just save a cup of kombucha and a scoby to make kombucha for the rest of the season. This way I'm not storing a scoby all winter, trying to keep it alive. 

If you'd rather watch the video on youtube click HERE.

* I give a few extra tips at the end so make sure your volume is up towards the end of the video if your turn it of from the music. I also explain how to make kombucha vinegar. 

This method works every time! I do like to check to see how big the culture is on the bottom of the bottle, and I will choose one with a bit more culture in it. Just heat up a gallon of water to a boil and add in a cup of sugar. Brew your tea (black, green, white, or red. Certain herbal teas may kill your starter.) in the water then let it cool. Add it to a jar with your bottle of kombucha and cover with a tea towel. Let sit for 5 to 10 days or until a new scoby is formed.


Previous Kombucha posts:
How to make Kombucha and why its good for you.
Kid friendly Kombucha (sweeter without extra sugar)

I post a video and a blog every week, if you want new posts emailed to you then don't forget to subscribe over on the side -> 

You can also subscribe to my youtube channel by clicking the red play button in the subscribe area or by clicking HERE. 

Bathroom Stool DIY

I had a bit of a problem. We were redoing our upstairs bathroom and moving up their. My downstairs bathroom has a huge vanity, that is way to big for the space in my opinion but the nice thing about it is that I can keep my makeup box right on it. Moving to the upstairs bathroom though I had a problem again of not having space for my makeup box. We put up shelves in this weird closet space across from the sink and I left a shelf for all my daily used things to be left out looking pretty. Thats where I keep my makeup box. However, when I want to put on my makeup I had no where to put my box! Enter Pintrest. 

I was thinking something like this would be pretty. Plus it has lots of storage. Skinny to so it could maybe work. 

Apartment therapy

Another option was maybe something shorter. Has some storage and can go under the sink more so that size wouldn't be as much of an issue. 

frenchcountrycottage.net

A fun third option would be a little step stool that I could store some things on, but it wouldn't really be tall enough for my makeup box.

kellyelko.com

In the end I actually didn't do any of these... Instead I did an option with no storage because I didn't really need the storage their. I have plenty of shelving across from my sink where I actually keep my makeup box so the main thing was just to have a surface to put the box on while I did my makeup. My upstairs bathroom has a bit of french country going on, and a lot of gray and white. The only color I had was from my hand towel, and that was white and a light pink. So I decided to go with a geometric paint design on a basic wooden stool. Plus the stool was free, so thats a bonus! (Thanks grandma for letting me have your plant stool.)  

First I wanted to sand it down to just wood then stain it with a tea stain and oil it. But it was way to difficult to get the whole thing sanded really well so I just sanded the top all the way down and sanded the rest enough for a good coat of paint. 

My husband modeling the sanding for me. 

After sanding.

 After staining with tea. You need to do a few coats of tea and it must be oiled to bring out additional color. 

After oiling with hemp oil. 

 I decided that I didn't like all the wood so I got out some chalk paint and free handed the design. It probably would have turned out cleaner if I used tape but I would also need to be able to use the tape well, and I just didn't have time for that. But I liked the look overall. 

 The single bit of pink on the top is the same paint I used on the legs. I used a paint that I didn't need to seal on the legs, but of course I sealed the top. 

It tucks in nicely when I'm not using it, and I have a bowl and tray for any hair pins and jewelry that I keep on it.

I post a video and a blog every week, if you want new posts emailed to you then don't forget to subscribe over on the side -> 

P.S. I'm working on a new schedule, I'm thinking blog on Tuesday and a video on Saturday. I really like the idea of doing a separate blog from my videos every week, but I will still be posting the video to my blog too. Also I'm working on finding a new subscription manager so that you will get posts emailed right when they come out instead of the day after.