January Favorites

This month I have had many loves and I thought I would share with you what has inspired me, made me look beautiful, and everything in between. This month has been chalk full of birthday celebrations so a lot of my favorites are things that I picked up during my travels for all these birthday. While I was up in Santa Rosa and San Francisco I did quite a bit of shopping, and if we were honest to much.


1. My first purchase what at this adorable knit shop I found in down town Santa Rosa and if you are ever in the are you should defiantly stop by its called Castaway Knits. I came across this yarn by Schulana and I think it may now be discontinued but I bought four skeins of it there and it is just so so so yummy. It is a silk, wool, and cashmere blend and the color and texture is surreal.

 2. I loved the yarn so much I was inspired to come up with a new hat pattern that has a chevron, color blocked look.
 

3. You will soon learn I have this weird obsession with animal sweaters and so I came across this fox one on the sale rack at Kohls. I love it's sequined bow in her ear and it looks so cute in my closet next to my penguin sweater.

4. Which leads me to my fourth love which is my penguin sweater. Please note the bow tie.

5. While in San Francisco I was on the hunt for the perfect hat and found this one at Anthropologie. Its is such an interesting woven texture and I am so happy that I happened upon it.

6. Sense I have had an annoying red bump in my T-zone all month and hate using cover up, I have discovered my lazy solution: fake glasses. Plus I look smarter no?

7. And I fell so in love with this style of booties with the gold buckle that I had to have two different pairs. They are different enough right to have purchased both... or am I just ridiculous?

8. I have been really into winged eyeliner and I have been rocking it during any big events I have had to go to this month. Like say to the Justin Timberlake concert in LA for my friends birthday!

Textured Fun

Although I normally like to play with color sometimes its fun to play around with texture too. Using a combination of different fibers and weight of yarn it can be fun discovering the different fabrics you can come up with. As every year for Christmas I do all my Christmas knitting in September but there is always one person that wants something in December. This year it was my aunt and she told me she wanted a hat. Obviously I couldn't say no. That being said I was not in the mood to put a lot of effort in and wanted this hat to go fast. We luckily had just gotten in this new yarn Bulky by Blue Sky Alpaca, and I thought to myself "its fate, I just have to make this hat now. I have no excuse". The down side was that it did not come in purple which is my aunts favorite color. So I thought how can I get purple into this hat and started looking for a yarn to strand with it, because I do not know if you have met me yet, but I seem to not be able to get through a project without using at least two yarns. So I picked up the shibui silk cloud in the color UV which is a very bright purple silk mohair blend. I had to double it in the stranding to make it show up against the white of the Bulky. Being that it was large yarn on large needles, it knit up quite quickly. But of course no simple hat is aloud to be simple. I had originally tried to make a normal 'shaggy' beret-ish beanie with a two inch rib at the bottom. I mean the very straight forward simple hat type. I hated it, it was not what I wanted. I needed something more fun because my aunt is more fun.
So of course I ripped it all out and started from the beginning, because I knew that she has always been into to different texture I thought that I would play that up. Then this idea of allowing too just have the silk cloud by itself for some areas came to me. I was really happen in the end with how it turned out and have even been thinking of making me one for myself...but of course in pink.

After blocking it became much more beret styled

Once I folded up the brim

Lushie Review: Quaker Face

As you guys know I have very dry skin so when I was in Lush getting some facials I had to get their Oatfix. It smells so good. When I smell it all I want to do is eat it, its has this sweet yet cinnamony smell to it... I do not think I am doing it justice but you all will just have to go to Lush and smell it. But now on to the actual use of it. I do not know if I am a big fan of it, I have not totally decided. When the facial was on I was getting that stinging feeling across my whole face, but for anyone who has dry skin they know this is a good thing because its giving back all the moisture and then usually results in some stinging. So during the facial I was like "oh this is going to be good for my skin," but once I washed it of my skin did not look good and did not feel any better, if anything it seemed a little worse.
 I did the facial again last night and my conclusion is that its one of those do it before you go to bed facials. Pretty much make sure no one sees you until the morning kind of facial. Because when I woke up in the morning my skin felt amazing, super soft and moisturized. That being said I am unsure if I will get this again, I think I will try a few others and see if I can find one that I like immediately after and the morning after.

Lushie Review: Rudolph Redness

Now I do not know about any of you that use that use Lush products are like me but I am always looking for a deal. When I discovered that if I save up five black tins I can return them for a free facial, I was like sure that can't be to hard. I mean it's just five not that many and for how many lush gifts I got for Christmas in 2012 I thought I was going to be getting free facials all year long. How wrong I was. It has been over year and I only have three saved up and that being said I am not sure if I could find all three even if I tried.

So I finally bit the bullet and bought myself  some facials to try out. The first was their festive one that I believe is only in for the holidays called Rudolph, but maybe for next year you guys can get a hold of it. Now I have to admit that I am not a big facial user. I love the idea of them and always want to do them but I don't know what it is I just don't seem to like them. That being said I am unsure if I just have matured in some sense that has to do with facials or I just really liked this one. I honestly enjoyed every bit of the process. From the cooling feeling when it first touches my skin, to the constancy of it on my face, and finally the obnoxious green color it is that makes me feel like I am in a chick flick. It's not only the chick flick aspect but it is super easy to get off and my skin looks noticeable better in the end, which sadly most facials I have used I do not see a difference.

I have very very very very VERY dry skin and during winter time it is emphasized. That being said this facial sadly did not seem to help me with that issue of mine. What it did do was deal with the redness that is a result of the dry skin, and that is why I love it. Because of the dry skin I do not really get acne which is  a blessing because then I do not have to really care about cover up or foundation very often. With this red skin though I have been using more foundation then I ever have. With using this facial only twice I have toned down my redness and have been able to wear less foundation.