July Favorites

I hate how fast time seems to go. It's getting annoying. lol Anyway, as I mentioned last month, I tried out a few new things, most of which were beauty related, but hopefully this month is a bit more interesting to read. Let's get started!

LA Girl Matte Lipstick in Rebel, LA Girl Glazed Lip Paint in Pin-Up

These were two of the many beauty products I've tried within the last month, reviews for which will be up soon, but these have to be my favorite two out of the bunch. Even though I've known about LA Girl for awhile thanks to YouTube, I've never had the opportunity to try the brand out because it wasn't being sold in too many local places. I noticed the Pro Conceal last month at a local beauty salon and from there, the obsession with trying the brand has spread. I tried the Glazed lip paints first, and out of the four that I bought, I liked two. My favorite, though, was Pin-Up, which obviously was red. I can't get enough of red and plum lipsticks this year, and Pin-Up is a shiny, red gloss. Love it. It smudges rather easily, but I'm digging it.

A couple of weeks ago I came across the Matte lipstick line next, and I fell in love with Rebel. Removing the color is like trying to remove a coat of paint without any water which can be hard when I'm trying to take it off at the end of the day, but the positive about that is that it doesn't come off once it's on. Rebel is this beautiful dark plum color that is going to look even better in the fall than it does now and I can't stay away from it, even when it doesn't match my makeup in any way. lol This is the first matte lipstick I've used and there'll be a review up on it soon so I won't go into too much detail, but I am in complete love with this shade. 

none this month!

It really bothers me that I haven't had the time to read again this month. I miss my books. lol I'm going to have to work to make some time because not only am I in way over my head in terms of the books I have left to do for reviews, but I've got some gems waiting to be read. 

Bloodline, The Fall

Both of these are shows that I'd been seeing all over the Netflix homepage but hadn't watched until earlier this month. When I didn't have any satellite service I decided to add Netflix Originals to the TV section of the site but hadn't done anything with it yet. This month I started watching the Original series Bloodline, with Ben Mendelsohn, Linda Cardellini and Kyle Chandler, which is about a small-town Florida family who seems to have it all, until their dark secrets begin to come out with the return of the oldest son. I'll probably review the show in full before the second season premieres, but the first season was pretty good. Even in the moments of supposed happiness and light-hearted moods, you can just feel the tension and this eerie sense of darkness beneath the surface of this family's history. It's a dark, gritty drama and despite my few complaints about it, it's every bit as good as the critics said. 

I watched both seasons of The Fall last week, and omgballs is it good. I'm not an X-Files or 50 Shades of Grey fan, so I'm not very familiar with either Gillian Anderson or Jamie Dornan's work. This was an amazing introduction to both. The Fall is an Irish crime drama about a Met detective investigating a string of murders in Belfast and having to get the local police to accept that it is the work of a serial killer, all while the killer picks (and then kills) his next victims. The first season moved rather slowly, the second season was a bit quicker, but the series as a whole was very intense. Jamie Dornan plays a great killer. LOL I became slightly obsessed with this series; it had a different feel from American crime dramas and the cast did an awesome job of giving the plot some authenticity. Maybe that's because I'm not familiar with them individually, but there was a sense of realness, almost uncomfortably so, about the series but that's another reason why I enjoyed it so much. I'll probably be reviewing this show in full as well, but I can't wait until the third season premieres on BBC sometime this fall. 

Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends, DC Universe Online

I have had my eye on Xtreme Legends for DW7 since it came out. I hadn't gotten 7 when Legends came out so I wasn't trying to pick it up. Then once I had beaten 7, I couldn't afford Legends because the price hadn't dropped yet. LOL Finally, the stars aligned and I was able to get it. I've loved it so far. What I like about this is that it syncs your game data from 7, so your progress with weapons and animal discovery as well as character levels all cross over to Legends. This is the first Legends game I've played, so I'm not sure if this is an old or new feature. You get 3 extra characters to work with and locations from previous games are available again, which helped because after so long of repeatedly playing the locations in 6 then 7, it was getting a little stale. New weapons, things to discover and secret weapons as well as new titles can be unlocked, and I'm loving all of it. I've gotten distracted by DCUO lately, but I'll be back. 

DCUO is a very old favorite for me; I've been playing the game since it went Free-to-Play on PS3 so I'd like to think of myself as an OG of the game. lol My old PS3 was only 40GB though (it's one of the originals) so DCUO didn't fit and I had to take it off, but after my mama made my life and got me a new one last month, that was the first thing I put on it. It hasn't changed too much in the two years I was gone other than to add more paid features and extras to the game, but it's still been a blast to play. It's been overrun by the chirruns (children lol) in the time I've been gone which is a bummer, but I expected it. It was fun to go back and level up my accounts. The irritating level cap at 30 is still there, but now there are a lot more DLC options to make the game more interesting after that, all of which you have to pay for, of course. lol I don't think I'll do all that, but while I'm making up my mind, I can make more money to put in escrow, I guess. lol 

EyeEm, Aviary, AfterFocus

I had EyeEm before but I don't think I really appreciated the app for what it was because I ended up getting rid of it a couple of months ago but I got it back a couple of weeks ago and got lost in it. lol What I love about this app is that if you're an amateur or aspiring photographer, it challenges you a bit to take better photos. There are a number of photo challenges you can enter and even if you don't enter for the prizes, you can still enter or browse through the current submissions to strengthen your own photography skills. I love photography, but I worry that I just don't have the eye for it. I have the mind for it, but I don't know that it translates to the actual photos that I take. Anyway, the ongoing challenges on the app look like a lot of fun, prizes aside, you get to discover other photographers using the app, and get all kinds of photo inspiration. I'm really digging the app this time around. 

Aviary and AfterFocus are old favorites; I had them on here a couple of months ago and they're still among my favorites. Whenever I'm editing photos for the blog, these are a couple of the apps that I always use to get my photos looking right. 

Pinterest

An old reliable is on the list again because per usual, I can't stay away from Pinterest. It really is the place where my blog schedule goes to die and the DIY receptors in my brain fire to life in its place. LOL This month I've been on there a lot, mainly for ATV's Americana theme, but the rest was all nerd decor. It's never going to get old for me. I need to pin all the things. 

Blog calendars, recipes, desk/nerd decor

There was a significant amount of anger at the exact moment that I realized Walmart sold a blog calendar for $10 that was everything I needed, because I had already spent more than that DIY'ing a couple of them and left the experience unfulfilled. LOL But whatever, ya live and ya learn. Unfortunately, my learning usually comes at my own expense (sometimes literally) but I digress. Anyway, one of the things on my bucket list was to try out some new recipes and I have. It's been really fun and served as a bit of (unneeded but still welcomed) confirmation that working with food is what I want to do. Finally, my desk is still a work in progress, so I've been trying to find ways to decorate and get it to actually look like a workspace instead of somewhere I just drop all my junk. Nerd decor is always on my mind because I wonder how creative I can get with inserting my favorite video games into my decor. 

Photography, ibuprofen (LOL), junk food, cold coffee, my Super Mario cup, nerd decor

Even though I don't yet have the camera I'd like to have for blog photos or practicing my photography skills, it's still on the list of things that I enjoy learning about. It's really important to me, for both blogging and hobby reasons, to get better at taking photos and I thought this summer would be a good time to test some of it out.

I've been needing some dental work for quite some time, but I recently figured out that a lot of my problems are tied into my chronic sinus issues, so the need to get this work done has been bumped up a few notches. Anytime I get a sinus headache or an infection flares up, my teeth feel like someone is cutting the nerves off with pliers and no anesthesia. It's awful, but prescription ibuprofen has been saving my life lately or I'm quite sure I would have pulled the teeth out myself by now. 

Another reason why I probably have the dental problems I do now is because of my need for junk food and cold coffee. Both of those are really hard on your teeth, especially if you're not getting all of your minerals and vitamins to keep them strong, and both of them are now taking their toll. I don't eat as much junk food or drink as much cold coffee as I used to, but I still think about them all the time so I put them up here. lol 

I bought a Super Mario cup at the beginning of the month and it immediately became one of my summertime companions. I get teased for it constantly because the top looks like the children sippy cups, the string on the cup allows you to hang it from your neck and the bottom part of the cup doubles as a separate snack compartment, but I love it. Lastly, I've had nerd decor on here for the past few favorites. Do I really still need to explain that one? LOL

What documentaries do I recommend this month? I was quite busy on Netflix this month. I would recommend I Hate Christian Laettner for old-school college basketball fans, Tricked if you want an in-depth story about the reality of human trafficking, The Immortalists if you want to meet the scientists who are trying to unlock the secret to living forever, or An Honest Liar, which focuses on one of the world's greatest magicians and his fight to expose all of the frauds who bring down magic....all while keeping some secrets of his own. 

So that's it for me this month. I didn't have a 3 paragraph entry for everything for once. I'm going to check out a few new websites; even though I love pinning all the things I'd really like to have something other than Pinterest in this category. I have some reviews coming up this week and I promise I'm going to stick to my word (and my schedule) this time. See you tomorrow!