Dining Room Tour

This was the room that we used as storage space for all of our wedding stuff. The wedding is over, all of our wedding stuff is cleared out and I've been working on getting this room back in order. I thought I'd post some photos of the transition. 

New Wine Bar/Buffet Server

The table top slides out on each side and extends, giving lots of extra space.

 Photos that I took in Italy

 Shelf from Bed Bath & Beyond

with the two love birds that sat on our sweetheart table at our wedding

 Curio cabinet for my martini glass collection

 Top Shelf: Champagne Glasses, Candle Sticks (from our sweetheart table), Glass Vase 

 Second Shelf: Our Toasting Flutes with matching Dessert Serving Set, my great grandmother's liqueur glasses

 Third Shelf: Martini Glasses

(the Fourth Shelf has similar martini glasses)

 My Great Grandmother's Demitasse Cups & Saucers

 Top of the Wine Bar/Buffet Server

 Ikea Picture Frame with Damask fabric

As some of you know, we are renters and there are many things that bother me about certain rooms in our house but we just try to make the best of each space. Like for example, I hate the carpeting and drop ceilings in the dining room and living room. If it were up to me, I would have no carpeting and everything would be wood flooring- it's cleaner and it looks a lot nicer, in my opinion. It's far too expensive to buy new flooring or put up sheetrock ceilings in a rental so we made the best of the space by painting the walls and moulding (the moulding alone made a huge difference). Sometimes you just have to work with what you have...until you find that dream home.

Making Faces & New NYX Goodies

I finally got my hands on Kevyn Aucoin's "Making Faces." I know it's been around forever but it has great reviews and so far it seems to be pretty informative and universal no matter what year it is.

I haven't had a trim since January (long time, I know!) so I finally got one today. My stylist assured me that my hair was in great shape regardless. I guess not using the flat iron anymore has really helped my hair health. yay!

I was so excited to see that my salon is carrying NYX products now!

They were kind of wiped out but I still managed to find a few things.

 NYX Candy Glitter Liner in Silver (10)

 NYX HD Photogenic Concealer in Beige

NYX Retractable Lip Liner in Natural

What I'm wearing in the picture (above):

Mary Kay Medium Coverage Foundation in Beige 400

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Silky Beige

Rimmel Natural Bronzer

Nars Orgasm Blush

Benefit Brow Zings in Dark

NYX Eyelid Primer

Urban Decay Sin (all over)

Urban Decay Buck & Naked (crease)

Urban Decay Virgin (highlight)

Urban Decay Smog (bottom lash line)

Stila Pencil Eyeliner in Black

Cover Girl Lash Blast in Black and

Wet & Wild Mega Volume Mascaras in Black

NYX Thalia Lipstick



The Best Package Came in the Mail Finally!

We survived the hurricane! Thankfully we only lost power for a few hours. Our parents weren't as fortunate though. My parents still don't have power and my in-laws had a huge tree come down that crushed their deck. It could have been much worse, so we are quite fortunate. How is everyone else doing?

On the sunny side of things...
We ordered wine and truffle oil from the Torciano winery that we went to in Tuscany and it finally came in the mail the other day!

 These bottles were a bit pricey so we are saving them for special occassions.

This is the truffle oil that we had at the winery with our lasagne. It was amazingly delicious! I have a new love for truffles after visiting Italy.

 This is some of the balsamic vinegar and marsala wine that we carried home with us in our luggage.

My mother-in-law got us this huge pasta bowl in Assisi.

I just love looking at all of the things in our kitchen right now that remind me of Italy. There's nothing like cooking with the marsala wine, dried basil, cheese, or balsamic vinegar (that we bought in Italy) at home in my own kitchen. I love making those dinners that take us back and give us a "taste" of Italy all over again.

I just can't wait to go back!

I was going to take a break but...

...there's a hurricane on it's way and I'm stranded at home this weekend, so I thought it would be the perfect time to blog!

Last weekend was my husband's 29th birthday (ahhh 30 next year!). We had reservations for a private booth at our favorite local Italian restaurant, Grico's on Saturday night. The food is amazing here and it's kind of a tradition to go here for special occassions like birthdays and anniversaries. We always get a private booth for just the two of us that is closed off with a curtain- so romantic, I know. There is a great amount of history that lies within the doors of this restaurant. It's located in Pittston, PA which was once the home of many mafia members. Many of them dined at Grico's and had private meetings in the booths there. There is actaully a movie coming out about the Bufalino crime family (from Pittston, PA) that will star Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci; it's called The Irishman. I had imagined that they may come to the area to film the movie and possibly even film a scene in the restaurant but unfortunately, there was a terrible fire yesterday. I'm hoping that they will be able to recover from the disaster and rebuild.

We are so fortunate that we were able to celebrate there last weekend before the disaster.



 We met up with friends after dinner and went to the casino, this is what I wore:

(this was the end of the night, I apologize for the crappy picture)

Charlotte Russe dress

Coach wristlet

Body Central Heels

On Sunday, we had dinner at his parent's house and we sang happy birthday!

I made him a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing (his favorite).





Break Time

I seriously considered deleting my blog a few weeks ago and just starting fresh but then I decided no, this is my blog, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. Then I realized that I just need to take a break from it. You may have noticed that my posting has been quite sporadic lately and well the truth is, I have a lot (of not so great things) going on in my life right now. Don't worry, it's nothing too terrible. I just need a little time. I promise, I will be back soon.

A few upcoming posts to expect in the near future:

• Office/Guest Bedroom Makeover (still in progress)
• OOTDs
• NOTDs
• New recipies that the husband and I are enjoying

To all of my loyal readers~ thank you for understanding!

A Fabulicious Night

I guess I was in the cooking mood tonight because I made Butterfly Basil Chicken for dinner -which was really easy to make and delicious too- and then baked some Holy Cannoli Cupcakes for dessert. I bought two cookbooks before I went to Italy: Theresa Giudice's Skinny Italian and Fabulicious and I have been cooking up a storm since our return. There are a lot of scrumptious recipies in both cookbooks and most of them are fairly simple to make. What I love the most is none of her recipies require odd ingredients that you never heard of (and have no idea where to find them in the store).

I'm a huge cannoli fan so when I saw this recipie I was beyond excited. I ate a cannoli almost every single day that I was in Italy. There's nothing better than cannoli cream in my book!

Holy Cannoli Cupcakes:

 centers cut out to fill with cannoli creme

cannoli creme! 

 filling the centers

 homemade cocoa whipped cream

mmmmm the finished product!

Have a craving for something sweet?

You can find the recipie here.

New Shoes & OOTD!

 Steve Madden/Madden Girl

Style: Lokomo

For such a cute shoe, they are soooooo comfortable!

Dress: Accessorize (Italy)

-notice the sporadic sequins, they totally make the dress.

Shoes: Madden Girl Lokomo - I couldn't wait to wear them!

Bracelet: a little shop in Taormina, Sicily (Italy)

Saturday's OOTN

Forever 21 XXI dress

Charlotte Russe heels

Belt (boutique in Italy)

Cheap New Mascara that Lengthens!

Wet n Wild Mega Volume Mascara Very Black

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Peachy Keen



I didn't expect much out of this mascara because of the price (right around $5) but its performance really surprised me. I know it's called Mega Volume but in reality, I found it to be more of a lengenthing mascara than a volume booster. I read an article where Kim Kardashian was saying that her trick for great lashes is to use more than one mascara at a time so I paired this mascara with (my holy grail mascara) Lash Blast and I am loving the results. I apply a few generous coats of the Mega Volume immediately followed by a few generous coats of Lash Blast for volume and the result is perfection!

I also picked up a bottle of polish- just a classic nude color. I love the brushes for the Complete Salon Manicure line, they give such a nice, even application.

Anyone else use more than one mascara at a time? What combo have you found to work best?

NOTD Not Your Average French Mani

I couldn't decide what polish to wear so I just used all 3 colors and added some silver sparkles to finish off the tip.

Polishes Used:

China Glaze Heaven (base color)

Art Deco Silver Glitter

Finger Paints Brushstroke Blush

China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint

Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac