Scariest Night of the Year!

Halloween! Oh how I love thee.

Growing up, and still, I love and enjoy all movies that the master and creator Tim Burtons directs. The Nightmare before Christmas will always been one of my top favourites and inspires me with my artwork and my creative process. So it'd be a bit silly if Halloween wasn't my favourite holiday, like, of all.

I have always loved getting dressed up for Halloween and getting my makeup done by my Dad, trying to be the coolest and scariest creature out there on that dark night. Candy was just a plus as dressing up was the highlight of the night!

Carving pumpkins with my Dad and Brothers was always the best, and I loved collecting every seed to roast and enjoy later.

Every year Halloween gets me excited like a little girl again, even at 25 when I sure as heck can't go trick or treating anymore, ha. But like I said, dressing up was the best part, not just the candy!

Sadly and unfortunately, ever since I moved out and became a full-fledged "adult" (*cough* never think I'll really act fully like an adult, ha) we have not been dressing up for Halloween and the 3 years we've been living in Alberta we haven't decorated our house either, not even put pumpkins on the front steps. So sad!

The thing that has saved that feeling of excitement for me, even if we don't dress up or decorate, is getting to see the excitement and joy on my Son's face. Even if trick or treating last year was scary going to stranger's doors, getting candy was the best part for him! That made it fun for us.

This year we're staying home, carving pumpkins tonight, and tomorrow on Halloween Mason will be trick or treating and I will be dressing up, even partially.

Here is how I practiced my makeup yesterday, although I didn't do a very good job on some of it. I'm going to be a dummy (like a ventriloquist doll) and tease my hair out majorly and be all awesome, ha. I don't care if I'm not going to a party with adults, I'm dressing up damn it!

Sadly we didn't decorate the house again this year, but I'm going to plan and go all out next year! I don't care where we are (if we've moved back to BC yet) or what!

Oh, also it's our 3 year anniversary of moving to Alberta tomorrow!

3 years ago tomorrow we got the keys to our house.... craziness. Time flies, eh?

Now, let me know what types of traditions your family has on Halloween? What is your favourite part about the holiday? What types of things do you like to dress up as? Comment on this blog post on go to my Facebook page and comment there!

~Kayla

Scaly Adventure!

Lizards and Snakes and Geckos, oh my!

Ever since I quit my job at the Edmonton Humane Society almost 2 years ago I have wanted to do SOMEthing while also being a stay at home Mom. I am just not the type of person that can just sit around and do nothing all the time; or the type of person that just sits around taking care of the house and child. Not fun. Nope.

For the past year I've been doing some stuff with direct sales, but it hasn't really taken off as I hoped that it would. I just think I haven't really been that motivated to be successful in that type of "work".

Surprisingly, just recently a friend of mine approached me with the thought about applying to do these parties in Edmonton. What kind of parties you ask? Reptile Parties of course!

Edmonton Reptile Parties is a business that operates in Edmonton (duh) and they have people that go out and do birthday parties and educational presentations for schools and such with Reptiles, Amphibians, Arachnids, etc.

So this friend of mine wanted to do these parties with me so that together we would have enough animals to do the presentations. I was super excited because a few months back I got wind that Reptile Parties was hiring and wanted to do it, but I didn't have enough variety in the species I had on my own!

Galadriel, my fairly new Butter Stripe Corn Snake, is going to be one of the animals that I'll be using to do presentations with Reptile Parties. Since she is new to me I won't be allowing the kids to touch her just yet but she is super calm and will be a great presentation animal I believe. Once she is more used to me, and I know her really well, I'll start letting the kids touch and handle her. :)

She is super gorgeous and I think she'll be popular since she is so brightly coloured and has those super pink eyes!

Corn Snakes are also super popular pet Snakes and are really easy to keep so I think Corns will be a good one to suggest to any children wanting to get their own Reptile.

Another one of my animals that will be visiting the children with me will be my Crested Gecko, Enya! She is generally super calm, and is a really pretty girl. 

Enya is my only gecko that has sticky feet (and hence can climb walls and ceilings, etc) so that is always a great novelty with anyone as well! Crested Geckos are also super, super soft and velvety feeling which usually surprises people that aren't really used to the scaly babies.

Gaia will definitely be doing this with me! She is my first reptile ever and is super calm and chill and doesn't mind being handled by lots of little hands. I've taken her to multiple ERAS (Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society) events where she was held by a bunch of people and she did great! Of course afterwards you always should give your reptiles a break from handling after days like that.

The other guys I'll be bringing along with me are Draco, my African Fat-tailed Gecko, and Vlad, my Mexican Rosy Boa. Vlad won't be held by the kids at first since I don't know him well enough yet, but I'm sure he'll be good being touched. He's super pudgy and soft so I think that'll amuse anyone!

I'm super excited to do these reptile parties as I've always really loved educating people on reptiles, and their care and personalities, etc. Children always seem to be extremely curious and welcoming of these unusual pets and animals and I just love to see the looks on their faces when they get to touch or hold a reptile for the first time ever! It's just awesome. :)

This is a paying job, of course, and so that also makes me happy that I'll be able to bring in some extra money, even if it's not a ton. It'll also get me out of the house, which is exciting! Since winter has arrived, pretty much, I usually don't leave the house much to be outside and so getting out with this will be great. I might even be able to bring Mason along with me sometimes where he can be my little helper. :) I think he'd enjoy that!

Once we move back to BC maybe I'll even be able to start up another branch of Reptile Parties in the Lower Mainland, that'd be pretty awesome. :D

In the mean time, I'm super excited to start teaching littles about these awesome animals!!

~Kayla

It's a Hard Knock Life

Being a Mom is hard.

Being a Military Spouse is hard.

Being a Military Spouse AND a Mom is draining.

Following the events that happened in Ottawa that happened yesterday morning I wanted to write a blog post about what it is like to be a Military Spouse, before and after having our Son. No I am not going to write about what I think about the whole situation from yesterday; it was extremely unfortunate and my heart hurts now... that is all.

Michael and I started dating when we were both 19 years old and I had just come out of a rough relationship with my ex, as well as he had with his ex. We couldn't have met each other at a more perfect time or hit it off even better than we did; we had an instant connection. After about two weeks of hanging out, talking, and getting to know each other Mike officially asked me out; it's been 6 years since that day.

At first I was brand new to the Military Girlfriend "scene" and had a lot to learn; we were also both scared that the other would leave us if Mike went away on training, etc. I had just come out of a relationship where I was cheated on multiple times, and Michael had just come out of a relationship where the girl left him while he was on the other side of the Country for a month, he was also cheated on by her.

So yeah, we were both broken at that point... but that's ok, because we were going to put each other back together.

2 months after we started dating Mike went away for the first long amount of time... for a month on exercise. It felt like a year to me since I had never done this before! Once Mike got home our friend Neil and I met up with Michael at a Starbucks in town right after Mike got back in to town. It was so awkward and was like we were meeting each other again for the first time! I had major butterflies and I just didn't know what to say or do.

I can say I still get that feeling 6 years later when Mike gets home after being away. I hope that feeling continues to happen forever.

A couple of months after we celebrated our 1 year anniversary Michael deployed to Afghanistan for a 7 month tour of duty. I was a wreck. We would go 3 weeks, even a month at time, without talking to each other at all and then when we did talk we'd have a 15 minute satellite phone conversation where it was just guaranteed to cut out before we were able to say goodbye. It was horrible. Every single day I cried when I went to bed; every single day I worried that he wouldn't make it home.

But he did.

7 months later I was waiting at the airport with Mike's Mom, Step Mom, and Sister. I was SO nervous and the butterflies in my stomach were making me feel like I was going to be sick. I didn't know what I was going to say or do when he showed up; I didn't know if I would know him anymore.

I was shaking and felt sick and it felt like an eternity for his plane to offload, and of course he was one of the last people to leave the plane.

The second that Mike walked off that plane and I saw him it was like nothing else mattered. I don't remember anything except that my butterflies were gone in that instant and all I felt was extreme joy and happiness and relief and love! I just wanted to hug him and never let him go.

THAT is what makes this all worth it.... is that feeling.

Being a "single Mom" while Michael is away, for a week or months at a time, is all worth it even though it may be the hardest thing in the world. The love you feel when you see your Soldier after any sort of separation is what makes ALL of this worth it.

People that ask us how we do it, or why we are with someone that is away all of the time, must not understand love. If they did, they wouldn't ask those questions.

Even though I sometimes want to give up this lifestyle, like now, I know that once we do I'll miss it. I'll miss the understanding that comes along with talking to another Spouse that has been through what you have.... "civilian" couples just don't understand. I will miss the camaraderie that I see in Michael and his co-workers. I will miss that uniform. ;)

I will always be thankful that this journey with the Military in our lives has made us so much stronger as a couple and as a family. We have something that most people can only dream of and I know that we can do anything after doing this!

~Kayla

Mini Hauls are Awesome

I like solo shopping adventures! Wee!

Yesterday was Sunday... and I was feeling miserable allll day. I have been sick since September 29th, about, and it doesn't seem to be going away! Yesterday morning my cough was horrible and my lungs felt super full of mucus and just not fun.

In the afternoon I was on the computer and mentioned to Mike that I wanted to go to the mall. He basically forced me to go out as he came over and forcibly put my boots on and got me up, ha.

So I put on some foundation and concealer so I didn't look totally gross and headed out to Kingsway Mall to go adventuring on my own!

My goal: Sephora, MAC, and Lush.

Lately I've been really wanting the Urban Decay Ammo palette but when I arrived at the mall and went to Sephora first I checked that out. Well, most of the eyeshadow colours I already had, or were too similar to what I already had in other palettes, so I passed on that. The only cool thing is that the Ammo Palette comes with UD's eye primer potion. Darn... but oh well.

So on I went to MAC! Oh, the lovely, small, crowded store.

It took me a while but I found the perfect eyeshadow... the one colour in the UD Ammo palette that I really wanted. So I got that in the pro palette eyeshadow so that I could add it to my palette once I got home. At the till I saw they had mini lip glosses called "Lip Glass", that looked interesting. They were $12 each and so I grabbed one to try as well in a purple y colour.

I really love the colour of this eyeshadow! It's a bit darker and a bit shimmery in person than what the photo shows. The light in the photo washed it out a bit.

It's like a cammo green and is awesome-tastic!

The MAC Lip Glass is a tiny bottle but is a good size to try out.

I was quite impressed!

The Lip Glass is like a lip gloss but it dries in to a lipstick type texture, just a bit more sticky (but not annoyingly so). It's really, highly pigmented and sticks in place really well! It seems to stain the lips too so even if most gets wiped off, your lips will still be tinted with the colour of the gloss.

I really like it!

Third stop in my solo mall adventure was to head to Lush! I absolutely love this place and their products now after trying them for the first time a couple of months ago. I love that they're natural ingredients and great quality.

I went there planning on picking up a face mask to try out, and I came home with 3 things (well, 2 and a half).

What I got was a Bubble Bar (can't remember the name but it smells SOOOO good!), the Brazened Honey facial mask, and a sample of the Mask of Magnaminty.

I tried out some of the bubble bar last night in a bath, as well as the Mask of Magnaminty; they were both amazing and lovely!

The mask was super cool and minty feeling on my face, super refreshing! I believe the lady at the store said it was a mud mask, partly, with mint. So it dried hard (like mud) and felt tight on my face but still comfortable. It also smells so good! I love mint... mmmm.

My face felt super soft and smooth after and just great!

As for the bubble bar! I used a piece about the size of a golf ball, maybe a bit smaller, and it made quite a bit of bubbles in the bath! It also made the water pink, which was funny, ha.

The only sad thing was that I didn't notice a smell when I used the bubble bar, like you couldn't smell it. Maybe it's because I'm still stuffed up from being sick, not sure.

After a long day of being sick and going out it was so nice to relax in the bath and just unwind and clear my sinuses a bit with the hot water.... ugh.

I can't wait to try the Brazened Honey mask, I think it's going to be divine! Honey is supposed to be a natural anti-microbial agent and so it should really help with any acne issues that I have as well, which will be fantastic. :)

If you haven't already, check out my new videos on my YouTube channel! I made one about my reptiles and artwork and one about my mini Sephora haul from my online order!

Kayla's YouTube Channel

~Kayla

Me on Staying at Home

"Oh, you're just a Mom?" followed by a look full of sympathy and maybe a bit of jealousy.

I don't know about other stay at home Moms but I hate this. I hate people assuming that I choose to stay home with my son because I'm lazy or unmotivated or uninspired. Somehow that I stay at home is something to be jealous of from working mothers? Something people look down upon in society?

Yes, I'm just a Mom... but I am also my own person.

I have likes and dislikes, I have goals and aspirations, I have needs that don't involve my child.

I am very conflicted on this subject.

To start off, my Son's journey in to this life was not planned. It was rough and unexpected and terrifying and exciting all at the same time.

After 24 hours of labour handling an extreme amount of pain with only minimal pain medication my Son made his way in to this world. Forceps left a mark on his perfect, soft little face. The moment I had him in my arms I was a Mom, and that's all that mattered.

I said something to my Mom when my little man was only a couple of months old. We were talking and the subject came up that my Mom couldn't imagine Mason not being there now.

In a moment of emotion I told my Mom that even though Mason wasn't planned it's like he had filled a hole in my heart that I didn't know was there. Nothing else could explain how I feel about this little boy than that statement.

Becoming a parent was nothing like anything we'd expected and like I mentioned in a previous post, it was the hardest thing I've done in my life, that WE have done.

For the first 19 months of Mason's life I breast fed him, which was the best decision I could have made. I miss it because it was just such a special moment between Mother and Son that we shared and I believe that it bonded us so much closer.

Once my Son had turned 1 and was eating "real" food and could go much longer without me being there to nurse him I wanted to go back to work; unfortunately things didn't pan out like I had planned or wanted it to.

When Mason was 15 months old I started work at the Edmonton Humane Society; it was one of my dream jobs to work at an animal shelter and I couldn't be more excited! Sadly, the schedules at the EHS are fixed and so you work the same days and same hours all the time and it doesn't change. We also only got a few sick days a year, which is extremely unreasonable for someone with children. Within my first 3 months of working there I had missed a weeks worth of work because I got REALLY sick (like running to the toilet every 15 minutes) and then Mason got sick so I had to stay home with him. Since I had missed so much work already in only my first few months working at the shelter they wouldn't let me take any more time off, even to bring my Son to get his 18 month vaccinations. Michael was leaving for the field for a month or so and there was no one else to watch my Son on the weekends so I had to quit.

My "stay at home" status isn't really a choice, it's a necessity. Child care in this city is ridiculously expensive (I was paying $800/month for PART TIME care for Mason), and half of my pay cheque was going to the day home.

Another realization came to me while I was working at the Humane Society and that was that I didn't want to miss ANY of my Son's firsts. I didn't want someone else molding my son in his first few years of life, I wanted him to be OURS and no one else's. I wanted his behaviour and his manners and his quirks to be from his parents and not some person that watched him while we were at work.

NOW I want to dispel the myth that I made the easy choice not to continue to work.

Being a stay at home Mom is extremely difficult and exhausting (mentally and physically) and frustrating and boring and busy. It can also be exciting and fun and amazing and rewarding and fantastic! Every day is different. Some days you can be on your feet all day running after your child while trying to get EVERYthing done: dishes, laundry, cleaning, cooking, playing, running, errands, teaching, bonding, healing, soothing.

Some days I love it and some days I want to run away and never come back.

I hate not being able to just go out whenever I want to, I hate that I can't just sit and read a book all day, I hate that I don't have a life of my own anymore, I hate that I can't just follow my dreams or go travel or find a new hobby whenever I feel the whim.

I feel horrible for feeling these things but then I realize that yes I'm a mother but that doesn't mean that I'm not myself anymore.

I matter.

It took me a long time to realize that even if I was tired, even if I was feeling like crap after a long day, that I still needed to do things that I enjoy. I still needed to go after my dreams and make goals and plan things that had absolutely nothing to do with my son.

I realized that if I didn't do these things that I would never be happy being "just a mom".

Now, for those of you that ARE happy just being a mother, good on you. It's just not for me.

That is one reason why I am SO FREAKING EXCITED to move back to BC in a year, and start school, and follow my dreams! To start a career of my own, finally, and be starting a journey that may not include my family but is FOR them.

Because if I'm not happy, then that is not good for my son. That is a lesson we all need to learn.

So no, I am not just a mom. I am a dreamer and a planner and a goal setter. I have plans outside of this house and they may not be immediate but they will happen.

I feel sorry sometimes for Women that give themselves up to their children and don't even remember what they used to enjoy before their bundles of joy entered the world.

Find yourself again... for your family and for yourself.

~Kayla and Mason

Makeup Squealz!

Squeeeee!!!!! Sephora order arrived today! Guess what I gooooot?! ;)

Sooooo exciting! I've been wanting to try this one palette since I first laid eyes upon it and I am so stoked to have finally gotten it!

First impressions are GREAT!

LURRRRVE the super bright, artsy case and as always, super good quality!

The actual palette is smaller than I was expecting but the eyeshadows are the same size I was thinking they'd be! That's fabulous!

Now, I was never one to wear makeup during high school and didn't start regularly wearing it until after I'd graduated. Surprisingly I was a MAJOR tomboy all throughout high school. I wore hand-me-downs from my boy cousins and over sized shirts from my Dad. Yep, I was that girl. I was afraid of my body and I didn't know how to be a girl, since I grew up with 2 brothers and almost all male cousins. Darn.

But alas, I learned the makeup way once I graduated and started experimenting more. Ever since those first days I have just adored brightly coloured eyeshadow and in my opinion there is no occasion which bright colours can't be worn. ;)

SO, when I happened upon this palette by Urban Decay I just had to have it! PERFECT for me!

I also nabbed up some Urbran Decay eyeliners to try out in all sorts of colours... loving them so far! I tried out the gold one first and it goes perfectly with the eyeshadows in this palette. :D

Very, very pleased with the eyeshadow, as usually. Super pigmented and rich colours on your lids, and they blend well and stay in place. I am a huge fan of Urban Decay eyeshadow ever since I got my Vice3 palette... amazing stuff. ^_^

 
I can't wait to try out all of the colours of these two products and I can see myself wearing them allllll the time, even during the day whilst running errands; I'm an awesome Mom like that. 8)

The one downside to all of my makeup purchases lately is that the Caboodles makeup case I purchased only like 3 weeks ago is almost full! I'm going to either have to get a second case or something soon, I'm sure. I DO want to grab my vanity from my parent's house though and fix it up to use as my makeup and getting ready station. That would be super handy! Re-do it to look rustic and pretty in a nice distressed mint colour. :D

I'm so glad that I've been able to try out all of the new makeup that I have lately, as it helps for me to be able to practice and get some knowledge on the area before I start school next year. I can also start forming my opinions on what products I like and dislike, which will help I think. :3

That's how I did my eye makeup tonight just playing around with the new palette and eyeliner! I used a green, yellow, and silver eyeshadow and then a gold liner on the bottom. I think it turned out awesome!

All in all, a good purchase I think! I feel more like my old self just wearing this eyeshadow as I feel so drab and dreary and boring usually. Ha.

Lurve

~Kayla and Mason

To Find Serenity in Life

In all the chaos and stress and darkness and craziness that can be life, sometimes it can be a bit difficult to find the calm.

My peace is contained in the spare room in our house. Funny isn't it?

Before I explain, I will give a bit of a back story to lead up to this.... ahem.

When I was 21 years old I found out I was pregnant, and it was the most shocking news myself and my partner Michael have ever received, I'm sure. (except for maybe being told that Mike was being sent to Afghanistan for 7 months) But I digress.

2 months before our Son was born I moved in with Michael in a basement suite in Chilliwack, BC. I was happy to finally live with Mike but at the same time the circumstances that finally got us living together wasn't the best.

2 months AFTER our Son was born we moved to Edmonton, Alberta. It was probably the worst time of my life as we moved over 1000 kms away from nearly all of our friends and family.

Moving to a different Province with a brand new baby with basically no support was nearly too difficult for Michael and I to handle. We were in love with our new baby boy but our relationship was almost torn apart in the next 2 years from the stress of having to do everything alone. We thankfully got the rare occasion to take a break when my one Aunt that lives here would watch the little man for us.

I can honestly say that we were not expecting parenthood to be so hard. Multiple times we both considered just giving up on us as a couple, but we didn't because of our son.

3 years later and I can honestly say that the first 2 years after having our son was probably the darkest moment in my life. Everything we had went into this little boy and we just had nothing left afterwards to make sure that we were healthy and happy as individuals and as a team. I am seriously surprised that I am not a single Mom right now... that is how difficult it was.

Thanks to some miracle we made it.

2 years after Mason was born things finally seemed to be going back to a semblance of normal, or at least we were making our new normal work. Mason was more independent and we were able to start focussing on ourselves again.

Personally, I was finally able to start doing things that I love to do again. We were both able to. In 2 years I don't think I picked up a pencil more than once but I was finally able to start drawing and painting and creating again. We were both able to finally enjoy life again and not have it be a constant and complete drain on every bit of strength we had. We were able to have hobbies again, and to have alone time.

So 3 years later and Mason has started pre-school, and he is very independent in play and being his crazy little self. I love him more than anything I ever could in this world, except maybe Michael for loving this little human with me and for dealing with my anger at the world for the first couple years of our Son's life.

Now back to the point of this post.

The small room in our house where I could escape the world for a few minutes to recharge; that would be our spare room where most of my reptiles are housed.

This room still to this day holds some kind of magical de-stresser to me. Just coming in here for 5 or 10 minutes to lay down on the couch and be in the same room as my scaly critters will just melt away the problems of the day. If Mason is being a total pain and I'm about to explode I can just come in this room for 5 minutes, close the door, and just relax and it makes a world of difference!

I guess I could call my scaly babies my therapy, to be honest. If they weren't here I don't know that this room would have the same effect.

I can just sit on the couch and enjoy the fact that they are there, or I can take one of them out and just sit and revel in the majestic animal that I am so lucky to keep. I don't know if they know who I am but the fact that I just love these unusual pets make me feel worlds better when I am having a stressful day.

My very first ever pet reptile that I got almost 3 years ago is my lovely, chunky girl, Gaia. 

Gaia turned 3 in May and I got her when she was 8 months old, so she has been with me for nearly the whole time that we have lived in Alberta.

Gaia is who started this addiction of mine with geckos, which then transitioned into an addiction for all scaly critters.

She is the sweetest and most calm of all of my reptiles and is the one that I show to anyone who may be a bit wary of these guys at first.

Draco is a 1 year old African Fat-tailed Gecko who I got when he was only a few months old. He fires up this brilliant orange colour if you take him out during the day and he is such a lovely little guy.
Being an African Fat-tailed Gecko he is a bit more shy than a Leopard Gecko, but once you have him out he'll just sit in your hand and chill.

Fat-tails tend to be super calm geckos and are definitely ones I'd recommend to anyone that isn't used to the fast movements of other species. :)
Fat-tails are also super, super velvety soft!

Bracken is an asshole, but I still love him.

He has been a complete and utter spazz since I got him in December when he was 3 months old. He is now 1 year old and is still a total spazz that hates anything to do with you and your hands in his face.

He is hilarious to watch when you feed him as he goes crazy for any kind of bug, and he's a great guy that eats his veggies like a big boy. ;)

Bracken is bright yellow on his good days but if he's feeling grumpy or cold he can go quite dark.

Enya is awesome. She is a gorgeous Crested Gecko who is 2 years old and I've had her for about a year now. She can be a bit intimidating in her tank because she thinks anything that moves is a worm for her to eat, so watch your fingers!
Once she is out of her enclosure though she is generally super calm and chill and likes to climb all over you.
And yes, Enya is a gecko with sticky feet, unlike Gaia and Draco! She can climb walls and ceilings with ease. ;)

Ice is a small baby Crested Gecko, like Enya, who is maybe 7 months old now. He has grown a ton since I got him when he was maybe only 2 grams in size! He was tiny! 

This little one is going to be a gorgeous adult and is getting a ton of patterning on his sides.

Being adorable and tiny he is also really jumpy and super fast so I don't hold him much yet.

Cookies and Cream, or Cookie for short, is my adorable 5 month old Paradox Snow Kenyan Sand Boa that I got in August. When you first go to get her out of her tub she is a complete spazoid and will flail and whip all over the place, just like any baby snake. She thinks you want to eat her at first.
After a couple of minutes when she realizes you aren't going to make a meal out of her she calms right down and just slithers super slowly and calmly through your fingers, all the while flicking away her tongue like crazy and checking you out.
She is the most adorable, derpy little snake I've ever seen and I just love these guy's little shovel faces!
I can't wait to see what Cookie looks like when she is full-grown. She is so pretty!

Galadriel is one of my brand new additions that I've only had for a week now! She is a 2 year old Butter Stipe Corn Snake and she is gorgeous and friendly. :)

Surprisingly and shockingly at the recent ERAS Fall Show another vendor came up to me and offered to trade her for one of my paintings!
Heck yes I said! She is gorgeous!
I have wanted a Butter Corn for a long while now so getting a Stripe for basically free, or just for my time that it took to paint that painting, is awesome!
I can't wait to get to know her and I think she'll be an awesome snake to take to events once she is a bit bigger. :)

Last but not least is Vlad! Vlad is also brand new to my animal family and he is a 5 year old Mexican Rosy Boa.
Vlad is a super calm, squishy, super soft snake that I think is going to be my chilling buddy. I can see us sitting and watching many a movie together.

This boy I adopted from the Edmonton Reptile Rescue and Rehab and I was really lucky to get him! He had been at the pet store, Paradise Pets, in St. Albert for apparently a month when I first saw him.
Since he had already been there a while and there was apparently a few people interested in him already I jumped on the chance to adopt him! A couple of days after contacting the rescue about him I brought him home, and I love this boy already.

So those are my scaly babies, and I love them all. :) These are the critters that I can come in this room and hold or admire or just be in their presence and my stress just melts away. They say that animals are the best treatment for depression or anxiety and I can 100% attest to that.

Who would have thought that these scaly, unusual, not "normal" pets would be my oasis in my own home though? I sure didn't.

This is why I have them, and this is why I could never not have reptiles now. They don't judge, they don't beg for attention or need walked or even fed every day. They enjoy your company when you offer it but otherwise they are good on their own. I think that's why I love them so much is that they aren't needy pets, but they still have their own personalities and likes and dislikes.

I love these guys as much as any dog or cat. Some of my reptiles are just as soft as a furry baby anyways. ;)

~Kayla

Crown Jewel?

I know everyone out there has a favourite makeup or skin care product that they absolutely love; for me right now it's all things lipstick!

I totally love matte lipstick and lately I've been a little obsessed with buying ALL of the lipsticks! ALL OF THEM!
So I decided to write a blog post about lipstick! Hurray!

I don't know about you but lipstick is the ONE makeup product that I have a completely, totally horrible time picking out a colour that I want to purchase. It takes me FOR FREAKING EVER to decide on what nude I want, or what shade of red, etc that I'm feeling in that moment. About a month ago I spent maybe 45 minutes in the grocery store in their makeup aisle trying to pick out a nude lipstick to try.

Sadly, right now I just have 7 different lipsticks and they are all pretty similar to each other. I need to branch out and try some new colours, I just can never choose!

These are my 7 lipsticks that I own right now, and I love them all! Even if some of them are really close in colour they are all different enough for me to love them separately. ;)

The brands that I have in my lipstick collection so far are Hikari, MAC, Mary Kay, and Maybelline.

Today I went on Skype with a friend of mine, Abby, and we chatted while doing our makeup and I got to try a new lipstick of mine from Mary Kay called Pink Moonstone from their Midnight Jewels collection. Absolutely love all of the matte-wear Mary Kay lipsticks and I have nothing to complain about them! They are long-lasting and highly pigmented so they are fantastic.

Here are some swatches of all of my lipsticks to show you their colours in natural light!

The left column from top to bottom is:
Mary Kay Pink Moostone
Mary Kay Sienne Brulee

MAC Hug Me

Maybelline Untainted Spice

Right column from top to bottom is:

Mary Kay Coral Bliss

Hikari Cabernet

Mary Kay Carefree Coral

My favourites out of my lipsticks have definitely got to be the MK Carefree Coral and then I love all of my nude shades equally! My next lipstick purchase is definitely going to be MAC Velvet Teddy as I just fell in love with the colour when I saw someone wearing it in a YouTube video I watched this morning, ha.

What is your guy's favourite brand of lipstick? What colours do you love? I am loving the browns for this fall and my regular ol' nudes. ^_^

My look today I created using Smashbox Stick Concealer, Mary Kay Matte-wear Foundation, Mary Kay Translucent Powder, Mary Kay Cream Blush, Too Faced Bulletproof Brows, Mary Kay Gel Eyeliner, Urban Decay Vice3 Palette in Angel and Dragon, Mary Kay Lash Love Waterproof Mascara, Mary Kay Clear Lip Liner, and Mary Kay Pink Moonstone Lipstick.

Definitely getting used to my eyebrows being filled in, makes me seem more finished and gives me a strong look! I absolutely love this new Mary Kay lipstick, love the colour and the feel as usual. As for my Urban Decay Vice3 Palette I could gush on and on about how AMAZING it is but you all probably know this already. ;)

But that is all, thought I'd share my look for today and my love for lipstick! Share yours with me in the comments!

~Kayla

Something Younique

I have been trying a lot of new and different make up and skin care products lately which have been pretty exciting! My latest haul is from Younique; if you've never heard of them they are a small, brand new, direct sales company that sells make up and some skin care. :)

I was SUPER excited to try the products that I ordered (I ordered one of their collections) and I was disappointed with one product but the rest are quite good.

I loved the packaging and the make up bag that the products came in as my favourite colour of all time is purple! Younique's company colour is basically purple so that's awesome, ha.

The packaging was quite nice and when my package arrived I couldn't wait to open it to at least look at the stuff even if I couldn't try it right away!

The items that I got were Lip gloss, Mineral Blush, Pressed Powder, Cream Foundation, 2 Mineral Eye Pigments, and their famous Fibre Lash Mascara. The product that I was most looking forwards to was the mascara as the hype around it is pretty big.

First off I'll start with the one product I was not impressed with, at all. Youniques Lucrative Lip gloss was pretty disappointing but the rest of the products at least redeemed my order.

The lip gloss was not the colour I was expecting at all which was sad and made me not even want to try it unfortunately. I opened it up and the lip gloss is pretty nice looking and has a handy mirror on the side for you to use to apply it. I thought that was pretty cool and useful!

Well, even though I didn't like the look of the colour I went to the bathroom to apply it to at least see how it looked on and how it felt.

The colour did not look any better on my lips, I can say that. It did not go with my skin tone at all, even though I thought I had picked a good colour (apparently not). It is also really, really liquidy so there is absolutely no way this lip gloss would stay in place for even a short while. It is quite pigmented so the fact that it doesn't have any staying power I can just see this getting smeared all over my face if I wore it out, or even at home, and end up looking like a reincarnation of the Joker...

The next products that I tried were Younique's Pressed Powder and Cream Foundation, which were pretty good for what I was expecting after that lip gloss, ha.

 

I removed all of my make up that I had on already from the day, and applied the cream foundation with the sponge that came with it. The coverage of this foundation was pretty good and it matched my skin colour quite well which was great! The only thing is that I have only ever used liquid foundation so using this cream foundation it felt like Halloween make up on my skin! That's how thick and heavy it felt. 

For those of you that are used to using cream foundation though this I think would be great. After it was applied it didn't look caky or flaky or anything which was definitely a plus! The foundation even covered my blemishes pretty well just applying a thin layer over everything.

The pressed powder was like any other powder I've used before and it matched my skin quite well as well, so no disappointment there. :)

After trying the powder and foundation I did try some of the blush with my finger, which is a mineral powder blush. It wasn't easy to blend with my finger and it stuck in place pretty well and is highly pigmented. I'll give a better review when I put it on fully with a blush brush!

The last product I've tried so far I applied last night when I was getting ready to go out to a Steeped Tea, Tea Tour night. I was doing my make up pretty strong and a bit pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The product that I tried last so far is the Moodstuck 3D Fibre Lashes which was the one product I was the most excited to try! I have never tried mascara like this, always just used regular ol' stuff, so it was pretty cool and odd.

I was quite happy with the results that I got with this mascara duo, I can assure you that! The packaging is really cute and great quality, and the mascara bottles are pretty large so should last a good long while!

This mascara comes in two tubes; one is the transplanting gel (a black, mascara like product) and the other is the 3D fibres (which are black and not white!).

I applied all of my make up and then finished it off with this mascara and I can say I'll be using it often now! I followed the directions that came in the case and the results were great. My lashes are naturally pretty long but these made them ridiculous in length and the thickness was fabulous as well. Super easy to use and I had no fall-out on my face from the fibres; as long as you aren't trying to put too many fibres on at once you shouldn't have fall-out either. ;)

Here is my finished eye make up with the 3D Fibre Lashes! Quite fantastic isn't it?! It's definitely a product I'd recommend every woman who doesn't want to be applying fake eyelashes at all. I have never been able to apply false lashes myself so this is great, ha.

Lastly, the mineral eye pigments! I haven't tried them yet but I'll tell you my first impression. The amount they give you is TINY! I'm sure it'll last a long time though since it IS a pigment and not a pressed powder. It just surprised me how little comes in the pots that they come in.

 

Well that's my review of the products I've tried so far, stay tuned for videos on my YouTube channel! I'm hoping to finally record some tutorials for my Vice3 palette (which is AMAZING!!!) which I used to get my eye look in this blog post. I am also hoping to post a video creating a whole look using all of the Younique products that I received (minus the lip gloss, ugh).

If you're looking to try some Younique products of your own, take a look at my friend Abby's website! She just joined up and I'm sure she'd love the support. :) Abby's Younique Website

~Kayla

Show Cherry Popped!

Yep, I said it.

Some of you may know that I have my little art business going on called "Auburn Creations" and I was super excited to have done my very first vendor show ever this past weekend! I had a table for my artwork that I shared with a fellow herper, Kendra, who had some of her jewelry on my table. :)
This show was the Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society's Fall Show and it's one that I never miss, always lots of variety and a lot of fun! The last two shows I volunteered with ERAS but this one I had my table, woo!

So Friday night I went to the hotel to set up most of my stuff at my table that I wouldn't have time to on the Saturday morning of the first day of the show. While I was there I met up with Adrian, one of the managers of Paradise Pets in St. Albert, to pick up my new Mexican Rosy Boa! This boy is 5 years old and is such a sweetie, super calm and mellow and really pretty! I adopted him from the Edmonton Reptile Rehab and Rescue and I am super happy to have him! I can't wait for him to be settled in so that I can start taking him out and chilling with him. ^_^

This new boy I have named Vlad as I am re-reading a book right now that has Dracula in it and with his colouring it just seemed to fit, ha. His personality is totally opposite of what Vlad the Impaler would be though. ;)

So Friday night set up didn't take long and Mason just sat at my table eating his McDs while I set up. Took about an hour or less and I was out of there to head home to finish getting other stuff ready for Saturday!

Saturday morning I arrived and went in to my table and met up with Kendra and my helper, Nicole! Nicole brought her Axolotyl, Squishy, and her Ball Python, Medusa, the first day and they were both very popular! Before the show started Saturday I finished setting up and looked around a bit before the doors were opened. I was so excited!

Here is my lovely table all set up and ready for the first day!

I think it looked pretty awesome, and a couple of hours after the show started I actually put one of each of the stickers I had to sell out on the table so that people could see them. They sold a lot better that way since people could see them; people didn't seem to really notice when I just had the print outs of the photos of the stickers with the price. I sold about $50 worth of stickers over the weekend which totally covered my table cost, which is great!

The second day of the show we arrived later since it started at 11 instead of 10 like on Saturday. This time I brought more artwork and put up two of my charcoal pieces on each end of my display so people walking past could see from the sides. Those were really popular! I need to do more charcoal drawings of some reptiles and such to have at the next show for sale I think. :)

Sunday was quite a bit more busy than the Saturday, which was odd; usually it's the Saturday that is the busy day since Sunday is church and stuff for a lot of people. I guess there was the Bridal Expo and a couple other events on the Saturday though so people came on Sunday to the ERAS show! :D
It was another fun day on the second day and surprisingly I had another vendor's Son come and offer to trade my Jack Skellington painting for one of their Corn Snakes; I couldn't say no to that! So I got this girl!

She is a 2 year old Butter Stripe Corn Snake and she is so gorgeous! She is so long and slender and I can't wait to be able to take her out and hold her often as well! I was super surprised to be offered a trade for my painting for her, but was quite pleased! I had actually been looking at her on the Saturday and I guess they remembered. :)

So I had a great weekend! It was long and tiring but it was really cool meeting a lot of people I'd only ever talked to online in my Facebook group as well as other sites, ha. Got to see some really cool animals, talk to some friends, and hang out with some awesome people!

I can't wait to do my next show, which probably won't be until the next ERAS show in the spring. Long wait through the winter! 

In the mean time I'll be painting a lot more pieces to have at the next show, and looking for people to purchase the paintings I have now. ;) *hint hint*

Well that is all, hope to see you all at the next ERAS show where you'll stop by my table and buy stuff, hahaha.

~Kayla