Mask of the Day {Randy Brandy}

One of my favorite color combos lately are gold and burgundy for the eyes. Especially with light eyes. I wore this look, but darker and more intense, for a party I attended a few nights ago, however the pictures didn't quite come out right. So I decided to create the look again, but light so it would still be appropriate for me to go to work. So here was yesterdays mask.

PRODUCTS USED:

Face:

MAC Strobe Cream with MAC Studio Finish Tinted Moisturizer in Medium Dark, MAC Prolongwear concealor in NW15, MAC Studio Careblend Pressed Powder in Medium, MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Medium Deep as Bronzer

Cheeks:

Chanel blush in Reflex (no longer available, but MAC Style or Peachykeen, NARS Deep Throat, or CARGO Rome are very close duplicates. MAC Springsheen is a good one too)

Eyes:

Primer -POP Eye Magnet Primer in Airbrushed

Lid - MAC pigment in Blonde's Gold (if this is no longer available Stila Oasis is very close) 

Crease - MAC pigment in Heritage Rouge (if no longer available MAC Sketch is the shadow version of this)

Browbone - MAC shadow in Vanilla (this is my staple browbone color along with Blanc Type, Brule is good too if your skin is on the medium side)

Liner - MAC Blacktrack fluidline (top), Heritage Rouge pigment smudged in lower lashline

Mascara - L'oreal Lashout with MAC Plushlash 

Brows - MAC Omega shadow (my go to for blondes or light brunettes)

Lips:

Lipstick - MAC Lollipop Lovin, in person has more of a green iridescence. (no longer available. Closest duplicate I know of is MAC Sandy B)

Gloss - MAC Mimmy (any sheer peach gloss can duplicate this)

Stay Tuned!!

XOXO

Blindspott - Drown

Hoy nos vamos a ir de viaje. Un larguísimo viaje hasta tierras neozelandesas para disfrutar con este grupo de nu-metal. Hace ya bastante tiempo que los descubrí y no me imaginaba que por Nueva Zelanda pudiera haber grupos tan interesante como ha resultado ser Blindspott.
Tengo su discografía, compuesta por dos álbumes, y me ha parecido genial. Tras una ruptura, parece que el año pasado decidieron regresar y están preparando nuevo material.
No hay duda de que a estos kiwis les sobra talento pero les falta reconocimiento. Posiblemente el hecho de ser oceánicos hace que sea muchísimo más difícil para ellos darse a conocer. Llevan ya muchos años en la música, casi 14, pero sus ventas siguen estando muy lejos de lo que les gustaría. Arrasan en Nueva Zelanda, pero a nivel internacional nadie les conoce.
Aquí os dejo una de mis canciones favoritas suyas, "Drown":

Opiniões: Bang! nº9 – “1964: O ano do fantasmas e dos demónios – Cinema Fantástico Japonês” por Safaa Dib

Neste texto, Safaa Dib relembra-nos que antes de Ring e Ju-on terem sido adaptados às sensibilidades ocidentais (ou seja, na minha opinião, inferiorizando-se) o cinema japonês já dava cartas no terror fantástico e exemplifica referindo duas obras que partilham o ano de estreia: Kwaidan de Masaki Kobayashi e Onibaba de Kanedo Shindo.

Gostei. Admito que nunca tinha ouvido falar destes filmes, embora conhecesse as histórias, mas este texto despertou-me a curiosidade (as it shoud), dando-me mais um motivo para manter o meu fascínio pelos mitos e lendas japoneses (aqueles que leram “A Vingança do Lobo” sabem que o país do Sol Nascente tem um lugar especial no universo de Crónicas Obscuras). 

More Texas birds, and a tale of woe

I was updating that last post with a different pic of the SBDO and I got a little carried away adding photos, so I went ahead and chopped that one off and am moving on to another potential lifer/mystery bird:Okay, here goes: DUNLIN? I thought I had a Dunlin last year at SPI, especially when the tour group leader ID'd a Willet as a Dunlin. But this one feels like a real Dunlin; I even looked at the silhouettes in the back of The Shorebird Guide (TSG) and hit right on it. The bill is what is telling me it's a Dunlin, along with his size. Coloration helps, but the size, the shape, the length of the tail feathers in relation to the body (what's that called again? rear projection or something?) are bigger factors, I'm sure. I really wish I'd taken TSG with me to Texas, but I had so much other stuff to carry that I had only my Sibley. I saw these birds while standing on the sandflats past the Convention Center, where you can drive your car right onto the beach (bayside) and the sand is flat and hard, like Daytona must've been when they started racing cars down there.

Anyway -- I felt shaky about the terns and the gulls, but this one I feel pretty sure about.

Now to the tale of woe that was our fruitless (and falcon-less) search for the Aplomado Falcon.

Mary and I went down to the Valley with a certainty that we were going to see the APFA; after all, I'd been tracking the ABA Rare Bird Alerts daily for like a month before the trip, and the APFA appeared almost daily and always in the same spot. How could we miss? We'd go down, get on "Old Port Isabel Road," and there the bird would be, circling around majestically in the air or perhaps perched on a cactus in some photogenic fashion.

We had Mary's iPhone with us and had locked in the GPS coordinates given on the RBA so we were all set; we went to South Padre Island first, then on our way back from the beach we took the turnoff.

First of all, without the GPS telling us where to go, we'd never have found this "Old Port Isabel Road." It's a dirt road with no marking signs at all. So we drove on this crappy dirt road full of trenched-out areas and treacherous holes, glad the entire way that we were driving a rental car. We finally got to the GPS spot indicated on every single report of the APFA, got out of the car, and looked to the skies.

And looked to the cactus.

And looked to the brush.

You get the idea.

You must understand that we haven't lived in the Valley for a long time; I'd forgotten just how huge a landscape can be when it's flat as a pancake and covered in low brush, mesquite trees, and cactus. You can drive for miles and it all looks exactly the same, mile after mile after mile. So we stayed there for about an hour or so, peering around at the empty sky and the endless coastal brush country to no avail.

We did see about a million Loggerhead Shrikes:
So that was something.

"Well," we thought, "we can come back tomorrow, and maybe we'll ask someone in the meantime for a little more, uh, direction."

We went the next morning to Estero Llano Grande SP where we met the actual guy who'd posted a bunch of those RBAs on the APFAs in the previous month! He works there at Estero Llano! So we ask him, and he gives us what sounds like can't-miss-it! directions which Mary claims at the time to understand (she lived in the Valley as an adult, whereas I never went back after leaving for college). She's been all over the place down there; we find we'd been on the right road but we just weren't looking in the right place! There's a nest, don't you know, and it's right on top of this 7- or 8-foot hack tower (WTF?), and it's about as far from the road as those cattails over there across this lake, okay?

Okay!

And, he goes on to say, not only can you get Aplomados out there, you can also practically trip over all the Cassin's Sparrows fluttering about! All you have to do is get on the dirt road, go to a big clump of cactus--can't miss it!--and play your BirdJam Cassin's Sparrow calls. They will just about fly into your car, there's so many of them! Can't miss it!

So. By this point, the guy's got us so worked up that all other thoughts -- of White-throated Thrushes, of Rufous-backed Robins, both of which were very close to where we actually were at that very moment but we didn't see the W-T Thrush when we looked earlier and the Rufous-backed was in some butterfly park nearby; of exact distances to drive or maybe a landmark or a distinctive tree or SOMETHING TANGIBLE -- were driven right out of our heads.

We had Aplomado Falcon Fever with Acute Cassin's Sparrow Syndrome.

We were gonna see these birds and nothing was going to stop us this time! We were gonna get two birds with one crappy dirt road! We couldn't miss!

So we drive halfway across the Valley again, this time getting to the road from the other end of it, from a highway with which Mary is more familiar. Can't miss! We know where we're going! We're just gonna look for that hack tower, by golly! Then we're gonna trip over some Cassin's Sparrows and see some more Aplomados! It'll be better than a David Attenborough Life of Birds moment, dammit!

SO.

So we get to this road that Mary knows, and there's construction. We have to detour around the construction, and somehow I take a wrong turn... and yet we still get to the axle-breaking crappy dirt road that is Old Port Isabel Road! Our APFA Fever is at like 106! We're on the road and we're going slowly, slowly, slowly this time, eyes peeled for this hack tower, cameras at the ready, bins strained to their limits!

And we look.

And we look some more.

And we see a lovely Curve-billed Thrasher:Hmmm, look at all the cactus here. Let's play the Cassin's call!

Nothing. The thrasher just looks at us.

We drive on. We see the lovely Pyrrhuloxia framed by the rustic barbed-wire fencing that is soooo Texas:Scenic.

We looked for at least an hour for this "hack tower," but we never found it. We realized that probably the guy had his spotting scope with him so seeing this 7-foot tower was easy, but with just our bins we saw nothing.

"My scope! My kingdom for a scope!"

We also played that Cassin's Sparrow call almost non-stop and got nothing more than a little Lincoln's Sparrow who, I could almost swear, said something like, "I think the fever's broken now. You can go home."

God Forbid - To The Fallen Hero

Hoy os muestro un grupo no muy conocido a nivel internacional. Se trata de la banda de New Jersey God Forbid.
God Forbid hace metalcore y el hecho de contar también con un cantante negro, con una potente voz, las comparaciones con Killswitch Engage son inevitables. Al igual que Howard Jones, Byron Davis cuenta con una voz profunda que parece resonarle en la garganta.
Les conocí en un directo aquí en España en 2009, siendo éstos teloneros de Ill Niño y me llamaron bastante la atención y en especial esta canción, que en directo resultó aún más sorprendente. Además de la tremenda voz de Davis, también me fijé en el buen hacer en la guitarra de Dallas Coyle, que también hacía los coros y que me acabo de enterar que ya no forma parte de la banda.
Os dejo el vídeo de "To The Fallen Hero", del cual destaco el soberbio estribillo:

Fantasy Face {Olivia Wilde}

I will not lie. I have a small girl crush on Olivia Wilde. If my brushes could get their bristles on that face... oh the things that I could do! But really... her face is AMAZING for make-up, as you can see that other artists have benefited from. I actually used her layout from the December 2010 issue of Instyle as my inspiration for the South by Southwest portion of the photoshoot I did for the Two Point Oh LA Spring 2011 Lookbook (last seen here and here). And then I saw her on the cover of Cosmo this month, and decided I needed to do a post on her make-up (though its probably more just her face I'm obsessing over). So here is my ode to her, her face, and her make-up.

Photos via Instyle.com, Cosmopolitan.com and other misc. sites via google

This last picture is ridiculously gorgeous! MAC Viva Glam or Chanel Lover would be good to create that lip. God...... can I come back as her in my next life? Pretty please? 

Sigh. A girl can dream.

Stay Tuned!

XOXO

Favorite Fictional Character --- Miss Piggy

I don't know what I was thinking last week when I posted about Mr. Moose from Captain Kangaroo.  For some reason I thought that was going to be my last FFC post of the month, so I wouldn't be able to get to my favorite Muppet of them all.  Luckily, I was wrong and we had five Wednesdays in March.  So today I'm going to give you the greatest diva of them all, Miss Piggy.

Born to a philandering father and an over stressed mother, Miss Piggy left her home over Becker's Butcher Shop as soon as she could.  Escaping to the big city our young heroine wasn't sure what she could do to maker her way.  In a bid of desperation she took a job walking a sandwich board for a barbecue dive.  After too much time spent doing a dead end job, our heroine who knew she was destined for stardom, took the name Laverne, and entered a beauty pageant.  Winning that pageant was the break she needed.  She went on to star in a bacon commercial, then as a mascot for a local TV sportscast called Pigskin Parade.

From there she went on to have a bit part in The Muppet Show chorus but her talents were not to be denied.  Her charisma and star power oozed out of her pores so much that Kermit the Frog quickly realized what a star he had on his hands.  She has more talent in her little snout that most poor fools have in their entire bodies.  She can sing, dance, act, and do a mean karate chop when someone pisses her off. 

There is nothing she can't do and her career has only gotten bigger as she has graciously aged.  She's done magazine covers, documentaries, sang with Dolly Parton, and has even done a workout video.  I have a feeling Miss Piggy will be around tormenting Kermit long after the rest of us have faded into memory.

Picoult Rules

I confess to Jodi Picoult burnout. It lasted a year. I read a slew of her books, was up on her every hot topic in the news, and then my brain exploded. I did this for awhile with Oprah - dvr'd her show, read her magazine, and then said, "I'm choosing slothdom."

However, I currently have Oprah's April magazine issue featuring poetry sitting open on the kitchen table. And Jodi Picoult's House Rules jumped into my arms at the library. Guess I'm an addict and there's no cure.

Picoult is an excellent writer. Her characters are flawed but likeable. Her storytelling style - various viewpoints - keeps your interest and heightens pace and tension. It's obvious she's done research on her topic - in this case, autism. All in all, House Rules, has Picoult in fine form and I'm hooked once again.

Jacob Hunt, high schooler, is autistic. Theo, the younger teen brother, is resentful and yet, looks out for Jacob. Emma, the mother, constantly runs interference on Jacob's life. As a reader, you will gain a huge appreciation for what a mother of an autistic child goes through each day. It's exhausting. Jessica (college student) is Jacob's social worker and has helped him immensely. Unfortunately, Jessica is found murdered and the key suspect is Jacob. Oliver, a new lawyer, takes on the case and the trials and tribulations of Jacob, who deals in black and white, no shades of gray. Oliver has to convince the judge and jury that Jacob is innocent, but is he?

P. 7 Emma discusses Jacob: If you talk to him, you'll have to be the one to start the conversation. He won't look you in the eye. And if you pause to speak to someone else, for a brief moment, you might turn back to find that Jacob's left the room.

p. 12 Theo's view: I'm no saint. There are times I'll do things to drive Jacob crazy, because it's just so darn easy.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult is a worthy read. She's smart and definitely raises awareness on autism issues through solid fiction. I recommend this, but then step away from the "P" aisle in the library for awhile. You don't want Picoult burnout.

Nuevo disco In Flames 2011

Curiosamente, tras publicar ayer mi entrada con el vídeo de "My Sweet Shadow" me enteré de un par de noticias muy importantes.
La primera es que la banda de Göteborg ha roto su vinculación con la importante discográfica alemana Nuclear Blast para firmar con Century Media Records. Ha sido una noticia que me ha sorprendido mucho.
La otra noticia y más importante aún es que In Flames ha publicado las fechas en las que saldrá a la venta Sounds Of A Playground Fading. En Suecia saldrá el día 15 de junio, en Alemania el 17 de junio, en el resto de Europa el 20 de junio y el 21 de junio saldrá en Norteamerica.
A principios de mayo saldrá el primer single de este álbum que contendrá 13 canciones.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

As much as I love mysteries, I have never read any Sherlock Holmes book before this one.  Quite honestly, the only reason I picked this on up was because the Friends of the Library Book Store had a hardcover copy for $1.  Otherwise I would have lived my life quite well without reading a Sherlock Holmes story. 

I think my aversion to him, at least up till now, has been partly to do with my experience with Hercule Poirot.  Both of them are arrogant, egotistical, and slightly mental at times.  I have a hard enough time reading the Poirot stories, I didn't want to have to deal with another detective that pontificates so much that it gives me a headache.  After reading this collection of stories, the first collection to be published, I discovered that while they may be alike in many ways, they are refreshingly different.  Sherlock carries himself in such a way that his egotism doesn't force those around him to suffer.  He's brilliant and he knows it, he is just a tad bit more gentle with showing it off.  It's all in the tone the authors chose to use and I for one now prefer Sherlock over Poirot. 

I think it also has a large part to do with how prevalent Sherlock Holmes is in our culture.  You don't have to ever read a book or short story to know who he is.  Admittedly I felt that I already knew him so what was the point of reading about him.  It's not a fair way to pick your reading material but with so much out there, why wouldn't you want to read about characters that would be completely new to you.  I'm glad that I can honestly say that I do know who Sherlock Holmes is now, and I can't wait until I get to know him better.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 12 short stories originally published in magazine form between 1891 and 1892.  They were published in book form in 1892, so not a very long wait.  I'm only ashamed that it took me until 2011 to give them a chance.

What I loved about this collection is that not all of them deal with an actual punishable crime.  "The Man With the Twisted Lip" is a case that starts off with the promise of murder or kidnapping as the minimum.  Instead it's a case involving identity and not wishing to expose a family to shame or humiliation.  There is absolutely no crime committed.  The best part for me though is that Holmes doesn't explain how he figured this one out.  Instead the author gives the reader the clues and leaves it to them to figure out how the detective figured it all out.  "A Scandal in Bohemia" gives us the tale of a king who fell in love and had an affair with an accomplished actress.  Now that he is forced to marry someone else he needs to get back all proof of the affair from the rightly angry actress.  This is the story that introduces the world to Irene Adler, the only woman to ever get the best of Sherlock Holmes.  It is the first story in the collection and served as a wonderful introduction into how Sherlock's brain works. 

Now there are actual crimes committed in these stories as well.  Bank robbery, murder, jewel robbery, and counterfeiting are some of the actions taken by the desperate criminals featured in these stories.  Even these, normally mundane crimes, are given a new twist that made me feel as if I was just discovering the crimes for the very first time.  In "The Adventure of the Engineers Thumb" a young hydraulic engineer, Victor Hatherley, is hired to fix a problem.  His client's hydraulic press is not working as it should and it needs to be fixed as soon as possible.  The client is willing to pay an overly large amount of money and the job is located out in the country so despite his misgivings, he agrees to take the job.  What he encounters when he gets there is more than he bargained for.  His clients are counterfeiters who plan on killing him once they are done.  Luckily he manages to escape, losing his thumb in the process.  On arriving back in tow, he encounters Dr. Watson who patches the wound and takes him to Sherlock Holmes.  From there the case is left in Holmes' capable hands and he quickly solves the case though the bad guys get away.  The atmospherics of the story allowed me to get sucked in from the beginning and the by the end of the story I felt as if I had watched a wonderful movie that would not leave my head.

As a collection I felt the stories worked well together and felt as if they were a cohesive example of Sherlock Holmes and his abilities.  I will have to admit to being hooked on him now so don't be surprised if you start seeing more reviews featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous creation.  By the way, in case I didn't mention it before, if you click on the story titles it will allow you to read full text versions of them.

Challenges: A-Z, M&S, VM

In Flames - My Sweet Shadow

Hoy toca una de las para mí, mejores canciones del grupo sueco In Flames. "My Sweet Shadow" es simplemente genial, con unos riffs soberbios y un estribillo inigualable. También hay que destacar como en cada canción suya, las espectaculares partes de batería de Daniel Svensson. Todo esto acompañado de la inimitable voz de Anders Fridén.
Esta canción fue la primera que escuché del grupo de Göteborg y me pareció absolutamente sublime. Tras escucharla me interesé por esta banda hasta convertirse actualmente en una de mis favoritas.
Se acerca el nuevo trabajo de In Flames, Sounds of a Playground Fading. Por mi parte lo único que espero es que siga por la senda de los 4 o 5 últimos discos. Ha sido el descanso más largo de In Flames desde que sacaran su primer trabajo Lunar Strain. Ahora, tras 3 años después del A Sense of Purpose, nos deleitarán con este nuevo álbum.

3º Passatempo "A Vingança do Lobo" - resultado

O Passatempo " A Vingança do Lobo" em parceria com o blog BranMorrighan.

Contou com 117 participações.

 A feliz premiada foi: 

 

70. Silvia Ferreira (Amares)

 

Parabéns!!!! O teu livro irá para o correio esta tarde. Depois não te esqueças de dar a tua opinião e participar em: 

http://cronicasobscuras.blogspot.com/search?q=Elei%C3%A7%C3%B5es

e

http://cronicasobscuras.blogspot.com/search?q=Casting

Quanto ao resto do pessoal, melhor sorte para a próxima :)

The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear

Synopsis From Back Cover:

August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California’s beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe. Michael—the youngest son of an expatriate Englishman—puts duty first and sails for his father’s native country to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed among those missing in action.

April 1932. London psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs is retained by Michael’s parents, who have recently learned that their son’s remains have been unearthed in France. They want Maisie to find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were among Michael’s belongings—a quest that takes Maisie back to her own bittersweet wartime love. Her inquiries, and the stunning discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his trench, unleash a web of intrigue and violence that threatens to engulf the soldier’s family and even Maisie herself. Over the course of her investigation, Maisie must cope with the approaching loss of her mentor, Maurice Blanche, and her growing awareness that she is once again falling in love.

I read a lot of mysteries.  Actually, I read more mysteries than I do anything else anymore.  This is the first mystery, and this will sound strange, that made me feel at peace.   Now I know that's not a normal feeling to have when reading a book about murder, but that's the way Jacqueline Winspear made me feel.

There is a gentleness, even when dealing with violence and murder, about her writing that I found intriguing and refreshing.  Most mysteries have a frantic, hard pounding pace and tone that while it keeps you on the edge of your seat, it's exhausting.  It's like eating an entire large meat lovers pizza.  You're full and content but feel heavy and lethargic.  This book though was like eating the lightest piece of cherry cheesecake.  They both leave you feeling full, content, and happy as can be.  You feel like you can skip through a field of heather, laughing and feeling as joyous as can be.  Now I know I'm laying it on a little thick, but I can't help it.

Now that I'm done telling you how the book made me feel, let me add a few words about what I thought of the book and it's storyline, the mystery.   When I agreed to review the book I wasn't aware that it was the 7th book in a series.  I had never heard of it or the star of the series, Maisie Dobbs.  After reading this one, I feel like I've been missing out on something grand (okay, that was more about what the book made me feel, but I'm getting there).

Maisie is a thinker.  She does her leg work, but she uses her brain way more.  I can see her having tea with Jane Marple and the two of them solving a case without ever leaving the house.  That kind of intellect is a nice change of pace to more physical type of detective I've been reading a lot of lately.  The fact that she is vulnerable and not as sure of herself when it comes to love, makes her all the more interesting. 

The mystery and the search for the missing nurse take some twists and turns involving more than Maisie was initially gambling on but the solution is well thought out and almost elegant in it's simplicity.  The author didn't go for the "shock and awe" of a outcome that came out of the blue.  Instead she chose to go with an ending that is slowly hinted at throughout the book and even though I saw it coming, I was still wrapped up in the story until the last page.

I know this review was a little rambling and a little too sugary but I think I can live with that.  This will be a series that I know go back and enjoy from the beginning.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  If you would like to read more opinions on this one, please visit the tour page.

Challenges: M&S

Texas lifers -- quickie post

So just to get these birds on the blog --

Here are the lifers from Texas:Pyrrhuloxia

White-tipped Dove

White-tailed Hawk (photo by Mary)

Eurasian Collared Dove

Clay-colored Thrush

Black-vented Oriole

Wilson's Snipe

Green Kingfisher

UPDATE--that other photo was a Willet, but here is one that I'm 99.9% sure is the Short-billed Dowitcher--the one in the middle:
Short-billed Dowitcher

How's that one feel? I should've known the other one was a Willet by the thickness of its bill; I usually look for that weird nostril but didn't see it on that photo, and was just anxious to get a better picture than this lame one. Assuming this was a SBDO, which a few other people on the boardwalk agreed with me that it was, this was Lifer #300, which inspired a little photo:the SBDO is in the background, as is the alligator previously seen on this blog.

I didn't get a snapshot of the Clapper Rail, sad to say. I did get some mystery bird photos, though -- you've seen some terns and gulls, but here's a warbler:I wish I'd gotten a better photo. I thought at first that it was (what else, down there?) an Orange-crowned Warbler, but I don't think so. Perhaps it's "probably just a butter-butt," were this Cape May. But I just couldn't figure it out. UPDATE: John is thinking OCWA, and I really think he's right. There is some weird dark coloring on the throat there, but I think that was just the wind in his feathers.

I also took this photo of what I think is a Louisiana Waterthrush:what do you think? UPDATE: Yay, John thinks it's a Louisiana Waterthrush too! Boo, though, it's not a lifer. I have yet to see a Northern Waterthrush, despite the fact that I live UP NORTH.

UPDATE even more! More mystery birds, with my tentative IDs now that I've finally unpacked my copy of The Shorebird Guide -- an AWESOME book with a capital AWE -- to go along with my Sibley and my Crossley Guide (more AWE):

Get a load of this little guy:the best damned shot of the bunch and OF COURSE it came out blurry!
Okay. I was feeling "sparrow" here, given the general size, shape, and coloring, but I just don't think so. Note the bold yellow supralorals, which I'd only seen on White-throateds before this. But this is no WTSP. Then I thought (read: prayed) it might be a Seaside Sparrow! Right place, right time, yellow supraloral! But the ones I've seen online just look a lot more drab, like this one and their beaks are longer. I've gone through the finches and buntings with no luck. Look at those crazy huge pink feet, by the way. What is this bird? It's probably something super-simple. I'm always a beginning birder, you know?

Tune in next time for more mystery birds as well as the thrilling yet heart-breaking tale of The Hunt for the Aplomado Falcon.

My Style Quick switch {Collared shirt dress}

Here is another segment I did with Sydne Summer and the Style Network. Here she took a collared shirt dress from the office to a night out on the town! How great is Sydne's top by the way!!!!! It's Plenty by Tracy Reese (so no wonder I love it). Its so colorful! Love.

Products used (On Sydne Summer):

Face:

MAC Face and body foundation in C2 and N1, MAC Prolongwear concealor in NW20, MAC Pressed Powder in NC25, MAC Mineralized pressed powder in Mediu Deep as bronzer

Cheeks:

MAC Blush in Cantaloupe

Eyes:

MAC paint in Base Light as a base/primer

Lid - MAC Blanc Type

Crease - MAC Wedge with MAC Rummy to darken outer 3/4 of eye

Browbone - MAC Blanc Type

Brows - MAC Chocolate Brown shadow

Liner - MAC Blacktrack fluideline (top), MAC Graphic Brown fluidline (Limited, but Bobbi Borwn's Chocolate Brown shimmer gel liner is supposed to be close) (waterline)

Lashes - Loreal Lashout mascara and Ardell Demi wispies false lashes

Lips:

Liner - MAC Cedar

Lipstick - MAC Roleplay (limited but MAC Viva Glam V and VI are close)

Gloss - Chanel Glossimer in Pink Teaser

More segments to come.

Stay Tuned!

XOXO