Batting My Lashes

In case you're new around here, I'm pretty much a girly girl (who hates the color pink and loves football and movies like Die Hard). I love clothes, shoes, makeup, jewelry... I get my nails done every three weeks and my hair colored every five weeks.

My color may not be natural, but my curls are!

Recently I've become super annoyed with my eyelashes. I was sick to death of mascara ending up all over my face. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration. I've tried expensive mascara, I've tried cheap mascara. I've done false eyelashes for special occasions, but I don't want to do that everyday. Plus I suck at putting them on.

About a month ago I took the plunge and got eyelash extensions, and I can't tell you how thrilled I am with them! I'm going to attempt to show you the difference, but I feel like pictures (or at least pictures that *I* take) don't do it justice. So prepare yourself for big grainy photos of my eye.

This is a before pic, with mascara.

My initial appointment lasted about two hours. It was kind of weird at first - she kind of taped around my eyes and most of the time I could feel my eyeballs moving around and I just hoped that my eyes wouldn't open. But eventually I relaxed and I may have dozed off. Her goal is to make the lashes look natural so they're not going to be super long. She did ask "do you want them straight like yours or curled?" Um, curled, of course!

After. NO mascara!

The closed eye view. Duh.

I am in love with my lashes. No mascara, no eyelash curler. And honestly, I've hardly worn makeup at all since I had them done, which is nice in the summer. I had a total stranger comment that my eyelashes were beautiful, and last week my hairstylist asked me what kind of mascara I use.

It took a little getting used to at first. For the first couple days you're supposed to keep them dry (or as dry as possible). And I had to keep reminding myself to not rub my eyes, especially when I first woke up, but that's just a good practice anyway so ... bonus.

It's not cheap, but for me it was totally worth it, and when you get them touched up it's less expensive. I got mine touched up yesterday after 4 weeks and I probably could have gone longer (she praised me for how well I took care of them).

Four weeks old.

Have you ever had eyelash extensions? Tell me about it!

Books, Books Everywhere!

I'm even more excited than usual for this month's linkup with Steph and Jana because I have 5, count 'em, FIVE books to talk about and none of them were losers.

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta - This is a YA novel set in Australia and focuses on a teenage girl who is trying to fit in at a nearly all-boys high school while also dealing with some serious issues at home. I often feel like the phrase "coming of age" is overused, but I think the description is warranted here. Something about this book really spoke to me, and I was majorly rooting for Francesca. 5 stars


Dirty Rush by Taylor Bell - I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads but I should have given it 5 stars because this is the book that got me going full steam ahead again on reading. It's about a girl who has no intention of joining a sorority but ends up pledging and forges lifelong friendships. Wait, that sounds like me. It's true that I was in a sorority (Gamma Phi Beta) but let me tell you, my experience was nothing like the one portrayed in this book. I mean, the hardest thing we had to as pledges was memorize all the sisters' hometowns and majors. The scavenger hunt these girls had to do was completely disgusting. Also, fair warning, there's some hardcore language in this book. If you're offended by "fuck" and all its uses or by the "c" word, I would not recommend reading it. I, however, really enjoyed it.


What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty - This is my first Moriarty book, and I only heard of her because of this linkup and the multitude of bloggers who have read her books. Let's just say this won't be my last. The premise here is a woman who wakes up after a bump on the head with no memory of the last ten years. Her three children? No clue who they are. I loved the way the story unfolded and I couldn't put it down. 5 stars


Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen - I read this for the Literary Ladies Book Club. It's another YA book and generally speaking, the one-sentence description of it is very similar to "Saving Francesca:" teenage girl with difficult family life switches schools and makes new friends. Overall I loved the story and the characters but it only gets 4 stars because there were some plot points that were introduced and never explored further. But the little annoyances didn't affect my enjoyment that much, and I'm looking forward to reading more Dessen (this was my first, but she has lots of books out).


You by Caroline Kepnes - This book is fucked up. (And if you cringed at that sentence, definitely do not read the book.) It takes the reader inside the mind of a stalker and as horrified as I was by his actions, I also sorta liked the guy, which then horrified me about myself. There's a sequel coming out in early 2016 and I'll be jumping on it immediately. 4 stars, mostly because I would have questioned my sanity if I gave it 5 stars.


That's it for this month! What have you been reading lately?