Emma's Health Ideas

I think being healthy is a very important part in beauty and can give you a real vibrance that is hard to get any other place. I've been on a health kick for a little less than a week and as I'm going, I've been doing excersize and eating healthy food. But I've really been craving something like cake or sweet bread (in this short amount of time, yes. Probably since I've been binge watching The Great British Baking Show waay too much this week). Even though I don't like bananas, this gluten free, sugar free banana bread recipe was fantastic and super healthy and kept my cravings down without cheating. Usually gluten free isn't the way I'd go. Just use normal flour. But when the pantry is running low, sometimes you've got to MacGiver it and use rice flour. Usually rice flour gives the batter a grainy consistancy that is really thick and close. But this had a really great texture and wasn't too grainy. Best part is, it didn't taste any different than normal banana bread. Will definitely be making this in the future (would've put a picture but it was gone super quickly :D). The recipe is at the bottom of this post.

So like I said, I've been trying to get in shape. But it's hard to get protein without having too much fatty, bready foods. Here's a menu to give you ideas, this is basically what I've had every day but with alterations to flavours and stuff like that.

*Breakfast*
Smoothy with frozen berries, spinach (can't even taste it and gives great nutrition), coconut milk, cottage cheese (make sure to blend this in really well. This is your protein) or cream cheese for protein count as well. (if you usually had cereal for breakfast, a great counteract to that is homeade granola. Just toss some oats, maple syrup and cinnamon together, bake until crisp at 350 degrees, cool and add dried fruit--serve with either cows milk or coconut milk, tastes great)

*Lunch*
Grilled chicken breast cut up over a salad

*Snack*
Chopped almonds and dried fruit

*Dinner*
BBQ meat with iceberg wedge salad sprinkled with feta and sliced, dried apricots (wedge salad is just cutting the iceberg head in half, then that half into fourths and just eating it in a big chunk).

I'd love to hear any excersizing tips as well. The best one I've gotten so far was--make a playlist of songs that you aren't allowed to listen to except when you're excersing. Any other tips? Meals?

Thanks for reading, stay classic and see you next time :).


*Gluten free, sugar free banana bread*

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about four--best if previously frozen and then defrosted)
2 tablespoons of natural maple syrup (the legit stuff)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1-1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup chopped nuts
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup melted butter

Add bananas, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl. Add eggs and mix well. In a large bowl. mix rice flour, nuts, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add banana mixture alternating with oil and mix at low speed in an electric mixer, or by hand till combined. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.
This makes one medium size loaf. Serve warm with butter or cream cheese. (can be used for a breakfast or just late night munchies. 

Busy Beauty

Hey guys, Ruth Anna here, and I don't know about you guys, but I'm super busy this year. I mean, I'm writing this blog post in my free writing time for school. I have school, theater, social stuff... It's busy. I well I can go out without makeup on, I don't really want to. Makeup is fun! So here are 5 beauty tips for busy days.

1. Invest in brushes. And that doesn't mean that you have to spend $40 on a brush. I personally spend $13 on a set of artist's brushes at Hobby Lobby that work just as well. I just mean that it can make a hugs difference when you don't have to worry about two eye shadows mixing on the brush or a streaky crease.
   

   

   
   
2. Get a makeup bag I have three full drawers of makeup, and I have the first world problem of not being able to find the product that I want. So take all the makeup that you use, and put it in a makeup bag you can get to easily.
   

   
3. Do as much as you can in the car. Obviously this one isn't for those who drive! And I'm not telling you to try and do liquid eyeliner in the car without a mirror well you're moving. But you can do lipstick or brush your hair. If you trust yourself enough you can even put on blush or bronzer. To be honest, I barely ever put on shoes before I go out to the car anymore. It takes much less time to put them on in the car.
   

   

   
   
4. Give yourself an hour. I almost always have a bit of time on Saturday or Sunday where I don't have anything to do. I'm not going to lie, I normally spend that time reading or watching a movie. But well I'm watching a movie I paint my nails, or a put on a face mask well I read. I don't paint my nails every day, I take once or twice a week to really take some time on my nails, skin, and hair.
   

   

   
   
5. Plan your outfits and put them somewhere easy to get to. This kind of ties into point 2 and point 4. In the time you give yourself, also plan your outfits and makeup for the next day or week. Write down what you want, or even better put all your stuff together. Then put everything where you can get to it in the morning well you're still half asleep. If you can get into your closet easily, that's great. I can't. So I take out my clothes and put them on my vanity along with my makeup bag.
   

   

   
   

Another outfit and Food

Hey everyone, how'd you're first day of school go? It's Emma, and I have one more food in lunches thing.

Alright. Food. There's one very very important thing I forgot to mention.

In your lunch, PACK ENOUGH OF IT! And I don't mean pack tons of bread and crackers. That's not protein. If you don't want to get home dizzy, almost puking, have a lot of protein. You know your balance, but after the summer, you start to forget how much to put in and what is something extra.

Don't worry about extras. Here are some ways to add extra protein in without being overly zealous.

1. If you pack a wrap or a sandwich, put in extra of the good stuff. More peanut butter than jelly, a little bit more chicken in a wrap, just make sure you have lots of protein.

2. Add more nuts to your trail mix.

3. If your school is nut free, pack an avocado. It's may seem like a vegetable (or fruit, whatever), but it has the highest protein of all vegetables (or fruits, whatever).

4. High protein foods are simple to add into your meals/snacks. Cheese sticks, peanut butter, yogurt, eggs (especially the whites), nuts and seeds (even watermelon seeds!), lentils, quinoa, they're all things that have a lot of protein that are easy to sub in for other things. Think avocado, cheese, nuts and seeds can all be put on a salad. Apples can be paired with peanut butter, mix either lentils or quinoa with chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper is amazing.

Here's the outfit for this post. I think it's really cute :D

Remember that whatever you have in your closet is better than going and buying all new things. So look at these things. They're all very basic, but when paired, they are an adorable outfit. You probably have most of these components already.

(Oh and quick cheating tip, you're thinking, $40... I don't know about those boots. They're not gonna fit a very long time. Super cheap, almost identical, knock off version of the boots can be found at Rue21 [thank your lucky stars this store exists] for a little cheaper. Hit the boot sale at Rue right around the end of winter, they're on sale that time of year. I got a pair for $8 :D. TJ maxx also has the boots for cheaper if you're lucky enough to find them when you go:)

Start for the School Year: Keeping it Beautiful and First Day Outfits

Hey everyone it's Emma. Below are some tips on staying fit over the school year. Sometimes it's hard to fall into the habit of packing lunches that are less than healthy and snacks that are even worse. And when you get home from school, you're worn out and tired. How are you going to get in your exercise in if you're leaving early and getting back late?

Ideas:

1. Lunch packing is a huge pain. Even if you don't have any dieting restrictions (either medical or self induced). What do you pack if the only thing that you can find is a hot pocket and leftover pizza? Try this. Have three parts to your lunch. First the side. Pack something like sweet potato chips from Trader Joes, veggie straws, apple slices, something snacky. Then the main bit. Take a head of iceberg lettuce and peel one big leaf off. Fill that with chicken salad or something of your own concoction. Bake a sweet potato at home, a salad with nuts and cheese, chicken breast cut into slices etc. Whatever you take, make sure that it's full of protein so you're not starving throughout the rest of the day. Then the last thing you want is something like a fruit. Apples, oranges, bananas (which are my personal hatred but that's just me) or blueberries.

2. Snacking throughout the day is tough as well. In between periods you will probably want something. I'm planning on keeping snacks in my locker that are non perishable like granola bars, dried fruit with almonds, stuff like that. So when you feel hungry it's like your fridge away from home.

3. Take a jog around the campus, or if you don't want to get sweaty before your next class, just take a walk to get your blood moving.

Hope this helps you get ideas.

First day impressions are the worry for every girl. Should you dress it up? Down? Bright or should you do something simple?

Go with your style. Whatever you're comfortable wearing, wear that. Here are two adorable outfits I put together that are really cute and each have a different style. One is more casual, the other less. :) Please comment on what you plan on wearing :D

Travel Makeup

First off, my blogger account is being weird, and for some reason it won't let anyone subscribe to any of my blogs... I'm trying to fix it, but well I'm working on it, could you leave a comment down below if you're reading our blog and plan to subscribe once I have it all worked out? We would love to see how many people are reading this blog! Thanks guys! And of course, if anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know!

I went to Boston this last week, and of course I had to look all over Pinterest for the most random beauty hacks ever. And I actually found some great ones that worked really well for me! I also found/created a lot well I was on my trip.

1. It was so hot in Boston, and I became I sweaty mess. I found myself using tons of powder on my face, and that's really not good for your skin. It also made me look really pale! So I finally kinda got in on the trend of baking my face. Baking your face is using powder, but only in certain places on you face. I start by putting on my concealer (Wet and Wild) under my eyes, on the corners of my nose, and on all the other places I need it. Then I take a contour brush (Cover FX) and really pack on translucent powder (Hard Candy) under my eyes, on my chin, on my forehead, and down my nose. I then do my eye makeup well the powder sits on my face. After 5-10 minutes I brush the extra powder around my face with a fluffy brush (Ben Nye). This makes the powder stay for much longer.
2. I spend way too much money on makeup for it to break in my bag. So I took my compacts and put cotton balls on top of the product. Then if my suitcase gets thrown around, the cotton will pad the makeup and not let it break.
3. On my trip I brought a concealer (Wet and Wild), a regular eye shadow primer (Hard Candy), and a shimmer eye shadow primer (Wet and Wild). I actually only used the concealer well the two eye shadow primers just sat in my makeup bag taking up space. See what you can use in two different ways. I used the extra concealer I picked up as an eye shadow primer.
4. This one seems obvious, but it actually isn't to a lot of people. Bring travel size beauty products! And that doesn't mean that you have to spend a ton of money on a travel size shampoo or something. You can pick up empty travel size bottles at the dollar store or really cheaply at Walmart or Walgreens and fill it up with one of the shampoos you already have. You can also bring travel size makeup. I always watch for a deal at makeup stores like Sephora and Ulta that gives you a travel size product as a sample with the full size product you buy. Lines like Urban Decay and Too Faced or stores like Sephora and Ulta have free samples with any order at checkout.
5. Don't bring your most expensive or favorite makeup. I didn't want my $50 eye shadow to break on the plane, so instead I brought a travel size sample from Clinique that I got for free. I mostly brought drugstore makeup that I don't wear every day and that can be replaced easily and cheaply. Things can be broken easily or your luggage can be lost.
6. If you forget your makeup bag, or something breaks, there are makeup stores in airports. In two of the airports I was at I found a full size M.A.C store, and I found a bunch of Benefit Cosmetics vending machines in the airports I was at, and those vending machines were probably the best thing that happened to me during the whole trip :) ! There of course will also be a Walmart or a Ulta wherever you're going, but if you need a touch up well you're on the plane, don't panic!
   
   
   Does anyone else have any travel beauty hacks? Leave them in the comments section! I hope to have some pictures up of some awesome vintage looking stuff I found and makeup vending machines sometime in the next week.

Staples

*Emma*

 I have a couple staples. There are exactly three ways to either make, break or carry an outfit or look to a higher potential. Sure that could be a basic navy cami and jeans. But add any one of these staples and you can bring your look to a new level. These can be used for all seasons.

But first let me introduce you to my two bea-utiful models. First is my younger sister Ab, and second is my fashion assistant Carol (who will be in most future clothing posts :D).

So my essentials. First off is my hat. It's my favorite one. You can buy this one for $16 at Rue21. Perfect to spruce up any outfit and perfect for fall days as an accent, or to keep off the sun in the summer (I've used it for tanning to keep the sun out of my face and it doesn't get too hot). I've worn this hat many times because it's durable for all seasons. It can be either dressed up or down, a tshirt and jeans or styled up with a gray sweater shirt (sleeves rolled up), a bright pink sun dress and either pearls or a chunky black, floral necklace.

My next staple is this adorable cardigan pullover. I found this one at TJmax for $13 and it really boosts up any outfit, and looks super cute with a navy blue dress and sandals. It's so lightweight that it can be worn in the summer on those breezy days that aren't so sweltering. This light jacket is able to make any outfit shine just that much more and bring a very classy, layered look. As you can see, the pink dress used in each picture has two very different looks, both super stylish.

Third staple isn't exactly clothes. It's actually mascara. Covergirl Bombshell Curvaceous. I found this one at that classy store we all know as King Soopers (yup). It's $10 there or at Walgreen's you can find it for about $12. It's very worth it and comes in a 20mL bottle which should last for a long time and is waterproof so it won't melt off in the pool. One end curls and the other boosts and gives off a really nice look when paired with shimmery eyeshadow and winged eyeliner.

There are my three staples. Just that one pink dress can have two completely different looks. Pair either outfit with your favorite pumps or heels to alter the style even more. Look in your closet to find look-a-likes for the clothes and put a picture of them in the comments so I can see your altered style in action. If you have suggestions or questions, put them in the comments :). Have a very fashionable week and if there's anything specific you'd like to see, I'd love to hear from you and get ideas for future posts. Stay classic everyone and see you next time!

-Ruth Anna-

  

    So I tend to buy my staples on the more expensive side. I figure that my staples are things that I will wear at least once a week and that I don't want to wear out quickly. So I'll show you the staples I have and give you the price, but I'll also try to find a less expensive option if you don't think the same way as me.

    What I do is I try to find a staple in each of these three categories. Clothing, Jewelry, and Makeup. I didn't have the time to do my own photo shoot, but here's the stock photos for all but my earrings.

Clothing-

      Mine is a white shirt from Holster. I got it for $20 and I love it. I can wear it with almost anything, Jeans, Shorts, a tank top cardigan, a real cardigan, a colorful cami underneath... It's a plain color, so it doesn't distract from the other things that I'm wearing if I want to draw attention to colorful shoes or a piece of jewelry. The lace up top also gives it the chic look that I'm totally into. That way I can dress it down for an every day outing with shorts, or dress it up for something special with a cardigan and jeans.

     I also have a black lace up shirt from Rue21 for $10. I don't wear it quite as often, but I still love it.

Jewelry-

      My piece is a pair of silver vintage earrings that I got at a antique store for $3. I can't give you the link to these of course, and I wouldn't recommend buying earrings from a antique store, But the closest that I could find was these from J.C Pennys for $11 . I'm not a huge fan of gold, so I really love these earrings. Plus I'm a huge fan of anything vintage, so these are perfect for me! I wear them at least twice a week. I wear them as my statement piece and I work my whole outfit around wearing them.

Makeup-

      Right now my staple is my Naked2 pallet from Urban Decay, even though I only got it a few days ago. It was $54, which is insane I know, but it was totally worth it. They blend so well, and I can do almost any neutral look with them. I am a huge fan of eye shadow, and I think that it's the major thing you can use to change up your look every day.

     This pallet is extremely expensive, so I wouldn't recommend buying it if you don't wear eye shadow much or if you're just beginning makeup. I've heard that Maybelline The Nudes is the same for $10, and I love the NYX Wicked Dreams pallet for $15

Thank you guys for reading this super long post! Comment any other posts you want to see, and don't forget to subscribe if you want to see more posts like this one weekly! <3

sleepover photo shoot #whatjusthappened