Facts and Lies

Ok, so, let's be real for a sec. Homegurl has not blogged in forever.

oops, bad leonora

something had to hit the back burner while prepping for renegade craft fair. I officially only have 1 more month left before the big day and I am fah-reaking out.

My goal was to have 90% of everything done 2 weeks before the show. (ha, what am I on you ask and where can you get some?) (I hear you laughing at me) (oh how cute she thinks she can get everything done for a 2 day long craft show like its nothing)

So I decided to write a quick fun blog post to let you guys know that I'm ok, cause I know you all care. You probably went to bed every night tossing and turning while saying to yourself "When will she start blogging again?! OH CRUEL WORLD WHYYYY"

well, now you can get a peaceful night sleep cause baby is back! (or is it "baby got back"?)

Below is a random lists of truths and facts about moi. I'll post next week which were true and which were false. But hey, let's have a little fun with this. If anyone can guess correctly EVERY SINGLE LIE then I'll send them a lil something something from Yellow Heart Art.

…Ready?

...Set?

(crap, I always forget what's after "set", let's just say "tomato")

Read, set, TOMATO!

(hehe, you guys missed me right?)
FACTS AND LIES

(I really don't know why I am posting an old pic of Bub and I, just go with it)

1. I once hid in a closet for a few hours on the set of Saturday Night Live to meet *N SYNC and Joshua Jackson. (can we please just take a moment to remember the yumminess that was Pacey Witter circa 2002?)

2. My 2 front teeth are fake

3. On our first date Bub took me on a tour of a light house in Montauck, Long Island

4. I have never been outside of the United States

5. in high school I ran past the barricades and security at a 98* concert in hopes of giving one of the members a birthday card.

6. I've been on TV

7. I'm naturally a blonde but dye my hair brown

8. I used to work at Abercombie and Fitch but got "fired" for not wearing the clothing

9. My pinky toe on one of my feet doesn't go down, so I leave "4 toe prints" in the sand and on cement after coming out of a pool

10. I am deathly afraid of dogs

11. I can make one eye move with out moving the other

12. I was on extra on the set of "sopranos"

13. I have a tattoo

14. I have a license to operate a hot air balloon

15. I'm the youngest of 4 kids

16. I got the nickname "toots" from my boyfriend because I am obsessed with tootsie rolls

17. I once caught a 5lb fish

18. I auditioned for American Idol but didn't make it to hollywood

19. I once posed nude all in the name of art

20. I stalked Brad Pitt on the set of one of his movies-we made eye contact-it was magical

Works in Progress! Sneak Peeks and Preparing for Renegade Craft Fair!

I apologize in advance for my blogging the next month or so. It's going to be filled with a ton of pictures and quick little notes from yours truly. Preparing for renegade craft fair is really eating up a lot of my time.

I wanted to show you guys some sneak peeks of how I am getting ready for my first ever ha-uge craft show! (There are 300 vendors going, pressure much?)

I of course recruited the Bubs to help me with cheap product displays. I am trying so hard to keep costs down (I am not going to even tell you what the booth fee is) so having a crafty little fella in my life is truly a blessing (even if he does take apart any and all electronic devices in our apartment to see how they work)

I told him I wanted cubbies for my plushes. He came up with this idea to have the cubbies at different depths to give it a "quirky" vibe (does he know me or does he know me?)

It's a work in progress but I am so stoked with how amazing it is coming out. The underdog might have a chance here at a ballin' booth.

Also in other news WHAT THE FUDGE is that thing lurking in the background in photo 1?! It looks like death. No, seriously, it looks like the grim reaper is out to get me in my sleep. I didn't take these photos, bubs had texted them to me from the garage so I'm just hoping it's his jacket, at least that is what I keep telling myself.

*shutters*

I also wanted to try and find a way to spruce up my necklaces. This was also super low cost. I bought myself some cello sleeves in bulk, designed the top flap, designed the background, and just printed it all out on my printer. The end result:

and my nails match too! I'm so beast like that.

I also thought it would be fun to introduce completely new designs at the show! So if you're in brooklyn on June 23/24 stop by and check out some completely new inventory. Once my show is over these lovelies will be in stock ;)

One of the prints that are making a cameo at Renegade is my "You make me melt into a big heaping pile of goop" print. Oh hey, the wording sounds familiar? Thats because I actually retired this print from my shop a while back because I wasn't too thrilled with the design but I LOVED the wording. I love its revamp and can not wait for it to make a debut in Yellow Heart Art come June! (But, if you wanna order one before just send me an email, i'll hook a sistah up)

Sorry bout all the watermarking, pinterest is the devil and so much of my stuff is going unsourced and duplicated that its making home gurl wanna go all chuck norris and round house kick somebody hard. real hard.

and the end.

Works in Progress! The wedding edition

I'm sure you have all heard me talk about Lauren here on the 'ol blog before. She's my "share the beauty" partner in crime! (Yes yes I know I have been a major slacker in my "share the beauty" posts. Truth is home gurl doesn't even have any time in her schedule to pee) (side note: Do you know how much time we spend wasting just using the bathroom?) (Like, can we find a way to eliminate that?) (road trips would be way more fun with no pit stops at sketch trucker stations)

But when she approached me about fancy-ing up her wedding blog I was all like "hell to the yeah"

She wanted something modern, clean and elegant. Her colors are black, white and gold (can we get any more classy?) (my wedding is going to be so obnoxious) (sorry mom)

tah-dah.

thats whats up.

I am so happy for you Lauren! 

If you wanna stalk keep up with Lauren's wedding you can check out the wedding blog here.

Some Wedding News ;)

Yes, that's right, I have a WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE!

and no, bub didn't putta ring on it

fooled ya didnt it?

BUT I have decided to slowly take Yellow Heart Art to the next level.

which is the world of Weddings!

I have wanted to do this since day one, but really had no clue how to start.

I have designed wedding invitations, saved the dates and fun "wedding signage" for brides before so this isn't entirely foreign to me.

Not gonna lie, I am a bit petrified. I am responsible for someone's day that they have dreamed of since they were a little girl. Someone who made Barbie marry Ken, then divorce Ken, and re-marry Ken again. Someone who I'm sure placed paper towels around their head to make it look like a veil and play "wedding bride". Someone who over the years has collected magazine photos of how their dream day should look.

No pressure.

But I am so excited for this venture. It's gonna rock--I'm gonna rock it so hard like its 1999 (not really sure why Prince thinks that year is so rad, but he digs it and I feel as though I should too)

Unfortunately I must wait to launch the bridal collection till after my cameo at Renegade Craft fair (oh, PS if you're going to be in brooklyn June 23/24 and wanna stop be please do! I would love to meet you)

Here is a little peek at a save the date I did a while back

oh do you love my giant watermark going across the image? Yeah, thanks to Pinterest I have to watermark the heck out of everything I make now.

awesome.

but anyway, maybe you're also here to see if you won a rad-tastic giveaway that I had for my bday last week!!

congrats to BETH from bbgoad! If thats you email me home gurl ;)

I am really unsure how to get the fancy smancy widget that announces that she is the winner, so if someone can tell me how to do that that would be awesome since I kinda had to take a ghetto screen shot.

MUAH!

Also, side note:

on yesterday's post I had briefly mentioned about my friend George who lost his life to a car accident 7 years ago to the day (5.3.05) someone had left me a comment on that blog post mentioning that they were sorry for my loss, but in the same breath wanted me to "look at their blog and give them advice on how to improve it"

Since you are a "no reply comment" blogger I couldn't write back to you. So here is my advice to you on how to make your blog better: Do not leave comments on people's blog posts who share something so personal and THEN ask about how to improve YOUR blog. It is beyond tacky and I was taken a back by your request. I have no problem helping you, but you could have asked or commented on a different blog post.

end scene.

Works in Progress Thursday! (Oops, sorry Wednesday)

Yea yea yea I am totally not on my A-Game, Homegurl is doing "works in progress wednesday" on a thursday.

watcha gunna do?

shiz happens.

After doing some lovely logo designs for the ever so adorable Laura from Lillypie Accessories I was fortunate enough to have her recommend me to Becky from HB Photography to work with her for a logo revamp as well!

I had so much fun working with Laura that I knew working with Becky would be as equally rad <3

((still lovin' this design for Laura!))

Becky had sent over a rough sketch of how she visioned her baller-reffic logo to look.

After doing a few revisions and edits here is the final product:

Thank you Becky for letting me be a part of your logo revamp-age ;)

----------------

Just a little side note since I always feel strange not acknowledging this whenever May 3rd rolls around, but 7 years ago today I lost my friend, George, to a car accident. Before losing him the only loss I have ever really experienced was losing an elderly person due to natural causes. I never had anyone taken away from me with out "being prepared". He was only in his 20s and not a day goes by that I don't think about him. It breaks my heart more so that I barely have any pictures of him. We take for granted that we now have an 8 mega pixel camera strapped to our cell phones, but back in 2005 digital cameras were not all that common to have. Now I take pictures of everything and anything just to hold onto those memories a little bit longer.

If you want to get to know George a little bit better you can see a youtube video I made of him back in 2006 (cut me some slack guys, I was totally using "iMovie" on my mac mini back in the hay day, technology has come a loooong way since then ha!) this video is bitter sweet, I love seeing him hug me but it makes me sad that I will never see him again. Also the stupid text is all pixelated since youtube changed their resolution from when I made the video, so now its hard to read :(

RIP George Kari, you are never forgotten.

My Birthday Grand Giveaway! Wha whaaat??

hello my loves!

I turn 28 in just a few short days, so I figured hey why not get me and some of my awesome friends to give you guys some awesome loot in celebration of the day my mom pushed me out of her no-no parts (a big waddup to my mom) (hi ma!)

I was so overwhelmed by the amount of people who wanted to participate in this! And even more touched by those of you who wanted my address to send me some bday love. (daaaw you guuuuys!)

Ok, nuff about me blabbing, let's get the show on the road shall we?

Hey, it's my bday and I'll give away an originally designed charm if I wanna!

[shop] [twitter] [facebook] [newsletter]

wooo hooo! Get to choose either this or this, major jealous alert over here.

[shop] [twitter] [facebook] [blog]

 supah cute stationary--alert the mediaaaa.

[shop] [twitter] [facebook] [blog] [pinterest]

 yes not ONE but TWO rosies for your neck! I own 2 and homegurl can roll like no otha.

[shop] [twitter] [facebook] [blog]

 this girl has the biggest.heart.EVER. follow her blog, won't be disappointed!

 [shop] [twitter] [facebook] [blog] [pinterest]

good luck choosing what you wanna spend your moola on! Please see how to use store credit below*

 [shop] [twitter] [facebook] [blog] [pinterest] [newsletter]

my photoshop for bloggers partner in crime. She now has a NEW bridal collection!

 [shop] [twitter] [facebook] [blog] [pinterest] [newsletter]

 This dish is perfect to hold all the bling you would win in this giveaway ;)

 [shop] [facebook] [pinterest]
 

 I own her chap stick and holy cow they are smooth and go on SO light.

 [shop] [facebook] [pinterest] [twitter] [youtube]

another product I own that I get a ton of compliments on! Have it in light gray :)

 [shop] [facebook] [pinterest] [twitter] [blog]

 thats right, check this link to see what you can learn in this ebook!

<a href="http://acutedesigns.bigcartel.com/product/photoshop-for-bloggers" target="_blank"><img alt="Acute Designs" src="http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g368/AcuteDesigns/psbutton225wide.jpg"/></a>

THIS IS CLOSE TO $300 WORTH OF LOOT! wow you guys are REALLY makin' out on *my* b-day ;) 

want in on this? Simply log in with your email (we will NOT give it out!) click the buttons below with each task you do! We do check to make sure your entries are valid. These ladies were sweet enough to give you some awesome swag, so show them major love! If the entry asks you to follow anybody you can refer to the links under their giveaway :) Also? sorry guys but this is only for U.S. Residents, thanks for understanding!

*for Jac + Elsie credit: good on anything in the shop except the jewelry in the "fundraiser pieces" section.

 

GAAAAAAH

Some of you may or may not know, but I will be turning 28 next week. Bub's and I have been going strong for about 4 years now. For the past year we have been getting asked over and over and over again by family members and a few friends when him and I were gettin' hitched.

For those of you new here I live in New York. Now, out of all my friends only 1 is married. Most are not engaged and even some recently ended things with their boyfriends of 4+ years. I know this isn't as common in other areas of the globe but out here on Long Island this is the norm. Most people now a days don't get married out here till you're in your late 20s/early 30s.

Yes, I love my boyfriend. Yes, I am happy with him, but honestly whenever it happens it will happen and I am SO ok with that! Us being married will not change a darn thing. Sure, I can go under his health insurance plan and we can finally start to look at houses but thats pretty much it. Besides, going to the DMV to change my maiden name does not sound like a fun Saturday afternoon. Maybe I'll just make him change his name instead, OR we can BOTH change our last name, suffer at the DMV together, and end up with a last name like "awesome". Mr and Mrs.Awesome at your service. "Oh hey the Awsome's are here!" "did you hear what the Awesome's did this weekend?" (sorry just giggled to myself for a moment there)

I don't think people realize that when they ask Bub and I over and OVER again about our relationship status and what our timeline is for getting married that it's slightly hurtful. I feel like we are being judged for not being engaged yet. I mean come on people give me a break over here it's not like I am 50, single and living with 30 cats all named after members of 1990s boy bands (come here Justin!  JC stop clawing at Brian!. Dang it Lance STOP PEEING ON THE COUCH!)

Him and I are happy and thats all that matters :)

And even if its not engagement people pressure you that once you are married "when are you having kids??" then you get pregnant and I am sure all my pregnant friends are sick of hearing "Hey, are there TWINS in there?" "when are you due? you look like your about to BURST!" then you pop out a kid and people just start asking ya when the heck you're launching another one out of your va-jay-jay.

I think people need to respect other people's decisions and personal life.

Which is why I finally went to my sounding board and voiced my opinion to my facebook wall. I figured if my friends and family saw my status they would FINALLY leave both of us alone and take a chill pill, or a valium, or a vodka tonic. And, well, things got a little crazy over there.

The cast of characters involved are:

Leonora = me
Catherine = Bub's Brother's Girlfriend (ya with me still?)
Grace = Bub's Aunt
Steve = Bub (Yeah, he has a name, who knew)
Phil = My Cousin

All the last names have been blurred out cause, well, the internet is a creepy place.

Ya can't make this stuff up.

Share the Beauty! Face Beauty Tips!

It's another week of sharing our favorite beauty weapons that make us all look all pretty and junk.

This weeks prompt was "face beauty".

Now ever since I got bangs people have been telling me that I look like a porcelain doll. Side note: my nationality is 100% italian. One would never guess this due to my transparent skin and green eyeballs. Pretty sure there was a baby swap at the hospital-but I've grown to love my family so I just didn't question it.

Anyway, I need all the "face beauty" I can get. I don't tan and I don't have much color in my face. Instead of pinching my cheeks to get some color into them I have turned to less painful methods and have reached out to blushes and bronzers.

NARS BLUSH IN ANGELIKA

I have always been a huge fan of blush. It just helps ya look fresh and awake. I have gone through hundreds of brands of blush. Finally I have found thee one. NARS is an excellent brand of cosmetics. Their colors are vivid and will last once they are swept on your cheeks. I use my blush every.single.day and it takes me a good year to go through an entire thing of NARS blush.

I love the color "angelika". Its this bizarre mix of a muted hot barbie pink. It also has a hint of glitter in it-not like "1990s Christina Aguilera borderline porn star" glitter, but a very subtle amount of glitter that when the light hits your face you can see a bit of sparkle. The color looks SUPER intimidating but once I brushed it on my cheeks it looked really natural because the color blended into my skin, it didn't just "lay" on top of it. It didn't look as though I was applying eyeshadow to my cheeks.

BARE MINERALS BRONZER IN WARMTH

Now, I was never a "bronzer" fan. Let's be honest, I am pale as fudge (I know what you're thinking "fudge isn't pale", well if any of you have seen "a christmas story" then you would know that "I didnt say fudge" just there)
So I was really super nervous to try out a bronzer on my light skin because, well, I didn't want my face to look super cute and sunkissed yet my neck look like the white reflector tape around those stop signs.

I got my first bronzer in that bare minerals sampler kit. I gave it a go and I absolutely LOVED IT. The trick to this is that A LITTLE GOES A LONG LONG LOOONG way. The pigment is SUPER intense so go easy with it at first. Also a little tip: when applying this stuff first apply to your face, then with any remainder left over on the brush just do a quick swoop around your jawline and neck to blend it in a bit. My one friend does not blend in her bronzer and there is a distinct line of brown around her jawline. It freaks me out. She looks like she has a chin-strap goatee and I have a hard time looking her in the eye.

NOW ITS YOUR TURN

wanna join the party and tell the world beauty products make you swoon? Just link up to either my blog post, Lauren's or Heather's where your link will show up on all 3 of our blogs!

PARTY RULES

1. Make sure you link to your Share the Beauty Post NOT your blog domain

2. Please have the post you link up to be about "Sharing the Beauty" not a giveaway or a product promo. Anyone linking posts that are not related to our party will be deleted.

3. At the bottom of your post link back to either myself, Lauren or Heather so people know how to find the party!

NEXT WEEKS PROMPT

Week 8- Lip Beauty: Lip stick, lip exfoliator, chap stick, lip gloss etc

We thought you guys would like to know ahead of time what prompts you can contribute to! Here is the list of future Share the Beauty Party Topics! We will be going in this order:

Week 9- Make Up Brushes
Week 10- Scents: Deodorants, Perfumes, Body Splashes etc
Week 11- Body Care: Razors, Shaving Cream, Body Lotion, Sunscreen etc
Week 12- Nails: Nail Polish, Nail Polish Remover, Clippers, Techniques etc

Works in Progress Wednesday! The "Cooking" edition

I am so happy I got the opportunity to work with Chelsea! She contacted me about wanting a fancy smancy logo for her blog.

She wanted it to incorporate her robin's egg blue mixer, throw in a little "fun", add in some "faith" and finish it off with some "bazinga" (ok she didn't say "bazinga") (do you watch Big Bang Theory?) (cause if not then you have no idea what I am talking about) (bazinga) (you just googled it didn't you?)

I LOVE this color combo!

You can also check out more designs I have made over here! Thank you Chelsea for having me be a part of your blog :)

Share the Beauty! Whats your favorite foundation?

Hey Loves! Welcome to "foundation week" at the Share the Beauty Link up Party! Even if you're not linking up I hope you all are experiencing some new awesome products out there that you didnt know existed!

Now just like last weeks when we talked about face care I have another confession for this weeks prompt: I don't really use foundation all that often.

Now before you get all "you suck you are blessed with the skin of an angel" you should know that I have THEE WORSE under eye circles known to man kind.

When the zombie apocalypse happens I'll be super prepared. I wont do my under eye make up that day and then the zombies will think I am one of them, thus sparing my brains.

Wow, ok, I totally just talked about the zombie apocalypse on my blog just now.

Some of you might remember this post here where I share my all time favorite foundation products for conquring under eye circles. I even included a fancy tutorial on how to battle them. So instead of repeating myself you can go to this link to learn how to not be a zombie.

(see my dark circle tips here!)

BUT I do love me some foundation for when I am feeling friskaaay. (ok, fact: I never actually feel "frisky". By feeling frisky I mean going to a wedding or seeing people from high school 10 years later)

So when I want to even out my skin tone I use (DUN DUN NA DUUUUN) (just go with it, I am trying to be all dramatic)

Mac Studio Fix Fluid

So I was using my hand dandy bare minerals powder for all over even coverage for forever and a day. I never wanted to ever use "fluid-y" type of foundation in fear of, well, I dont know what I feared.

When I realized that bare minerals literally uses minerals it kinda made me nervous knowing I was inhaling rock dust everyday. I went to MAC and got a fun little make over (you can get one too! Just buy 2 products from them and you get a FULL makeover) and the girl put this stuff on me.

HOLY FREKKIN COW.

I love it I love it I LOVE IT. You do have to apple it with a big 'ol "blush brush" type of brush. I just take a q-tip, put it in the goop, dab it onto the brush then swirl it on my face. It is so light and non-greasy I don't even know I am wearing it. It is great for just evening out your skin tone and to give you a little "glow".  It's not cakey and doesn't feel like its clogging my poors.

Now, with anything that you are putting on your face it will not totally stay put. So my other secret weapon is:

URBAN DECAY ALL NIGHTER SPRAY
Now I actually mention this spray in the above "remove under eye circles" tutorial. I spritz this stuff on my face to keep all my make up in place. I use it for my foundation, concealer and blush. Trust me, it is SO WORTH EVERY SINGLE PENNY YOU HAVE EVER EARNED (yes, I needed to yell at there really quick, I didnt like it either but it needed to be done)

NOW ITS YOUR TURN

wanna join the party and tell the world what hair tools make you swoon? Just link up to either my blog post, Lauren's or Heather's where your link will show up on all 3 of our blogs!

PARTY RULES

1. Make sure you link to your Share the Beauty Post NOT your blog domain

2. Please have the post you link up to be about "Sharing the Beauty" not a giveaway or a product promo. Anyone linking posts that are not related to our party will be deleted.

3. At the bottom of your post link back to either myself, Lauren or Heather so people know how to find the party!

NEXT WEEKS PROMPT

Week 7- Face Beauty: Blush, Bronzer, Face Primer etc 

We thought you guys would like to know ahead of time what prompts you can contribute to! Here is the list of future Share the Beauty Party Topics! We will be going in this order:

Week 8- Lip Beauty: Lip stick, lip exfoliator, chap stick, lip gloss etc
Week 9- Make Up Brushes
Week 10- Scents: Deodorants, Perfumes, Body Splashes etc
Week 11- Body Care: Razors, Shaving Cream, Body Lotion, Sunscreen etc
Week 12- Nails: Nail Polish, Nail Polish Remover, Clippers, Techniques etc