Eye Heart You

MY favorite way to play up any outfit is with some really fantastic eye makeup.  Girls, let's get serious here...wearing the same shade of eyeshadow every day is BORING!  So here's a couple of my remedies to spice things up...

1. Coastal Scents 88 color palette.  For under 20 dollars you get 88 different shades!  It's highly pigmented so you get GREAT color...and it's long-lasting so it'll stay on all day!

Great Color At a Great Price!

2. NYX Styx.  For less than $5.00 this is a great buy!  These fat eye pencils come in every color under the sun.  Use it as an eye shadow all over your lid. Put it underneath your shadow as a long-lasting base.  You can even apply it with an angled brush as eyeliner!  Just make sure you also grab their jumbo sharpener so you can continue using it:)

They Come in Just About Every Color!

These are two things you'll ALWAYS find in my makeup bag.  I love a "pop" of color, especially on my eyes.  For everyday wear I'll use the Iced Mocha NYX stick.  To turn things up a notch for a night out, use the palette; I have the ultra-shimmer 88 color palette.  Pair it with some mascara and eyeliner, and you'll have your girlfriends raving!  Just a side note: play up one feature at a time.  Dramatic eyes means you should go for a more neutral lip and cheeks. And here's a hint about me: if my eyeshadow matches my outfit it means I'm in a really good mood;)

P.S. To my brown-eyed beauties: jewel tones make your eyes stand out!   And purple makes your brown eyes look simply radiant!<3

What Are Your Favorite Eye Makeup Secrets?

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Healthy Food Doesn't Have to be Tasteless

Check out this recipe from SkinnyTaste!

Here's MY  low-fat baked ziti. Yum!

I HATE HEALTHY FOOD!
To those of you that think healthy food is tasteless, think again.  There's a way to indulge and still keep food yummy.  Check out the recipe above.  It's low fat, but you won't miss the fat...it's full flavor!


Methodolgy
Recipes, for cooking, are just methods. Feel free to change them up!  For the Low Fat Baked Ziti I use penne instead of ziti; the ridges will help hold the sauce better. Also, I add a shallot/half an onion, extra garlic, pecorino romano, mushrooms, and diced tomatoes in addition to the crushed tomatoes.  It helps you get in more veggies.  Also, it's a great way to use up the produce left in your fridge!

Tips For FULL Flavor

• Garlic is a GREAT way to add flavor without a lot of calories! (Just make sure to brush your teeth afterwards!)
• Citrus will add flavor without adding any fat.  Use the zest for an intense citrus flavor; just make sure to use the colored part, not the white underneath.  Also, the juice is a delicious way to add flavor. (Not from concentrate, please!)

Blueberries and Baking

They're Just Begging to be Picked!

A while ago a friend and I went blueberry picking in Central New York.  We looked like complete amateurs.  We didn't bring baskets, couldn't find the blueberries, and were apparently picking on the wrong side of the field.
We finally got our spoils though.  Perfectly ripened blueberries right off the bush!  Mine are all gone now.  I ate a majority of them right after they were washed.  I did save some though.
I had a few friends help me move out of the apartment I took on a sublet.  So, even though they didn't help me pick the blueberries (even though they said they would) I made them blueberry muffins.
Check out this recipe.  I got it from my friend and it's absolutely delicious.  This recipe is much better than any boxed up mix that you'll find.  It could be because it's made from scratch...or because it's made with love:)  My best guess, though, is because the blueberries aren't from a tin covered in a sugary mess they call blueberry juice.
Instead, the blueberries inside were picked by me so I knew they were delicious and fresh.  Take the time to pick your own fruit (or at least use fresh fruit) and make this recipe.  You will be well rewarded.

What A Treat!

Marshy Blueberry Muffins

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

 2 cups flour

2tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ cup milk

1tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups blueberries

Sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease the muffin tin well with butter, greasing the top surface of the muffin tin as well.  On low speed, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time and mix until blended.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt: the combine the milk and vanilla; add alternately to the creamed mixture.  Mash ½ cup of blueberries and stir into mixture.  Then stir in the remaining 2 cups of blueberries.  Fill each cup in the muffin tin to almost the top.  Sprinkle tops with sugar.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Cool for 30 minutes and serve warm with butter.  Makes 1 dozen large muffins.
Note: My muffin tin yielded more than what the recipe said.

Newhouse

Well, I've left my dear, sweet home in the South.  It's been a tough road, and still is a tough road.  I, however, am still hopeful that this is all for the best.  I left in the promise of new adventures in a new environment at a new school.  I'm at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University and getting my master's in Broadcast and Digital Journalism.  Thankfully, my family and friends are SUPREMELY supportive.  Their love makes me homesick to be with them, but thankful that I have them.  I've shed more tears in the past few months than I have in a long time, but I thank God that he's sent me here.  I've learned to rely on God because my family is now a very long 13.5 hour drive away.  This program is one year and a bit...I began July 5th for 6 weeks of "Newhouse Bootcamp."  I'm now back for the fall semester and beginning TV!  Check out HeyItsFranklin2011 on YouTube to see some of my early TV work.

I'm not spectacular, yet...but after a year I'll be ready to take my place in the world as a journalist as part of the Newhouse Mafia!  I'm at the best possible school for this!

Mom

Mom and I at a UT football game

My mom is the strongest person I've ever met.  She just has such a comforting grace about her.  In the tough times of life I take my problems to her.  It takes only one word for her to know what kind of mood I'm in.  She can read me like a book.  Though she's not my biological mother, she might as well have been.  We act the same, have the same mannerisms, and even kind of look the same.  As my grandma says, "well she (me) acts just like you, Paulette (mom)."  I think that should be taken as a compliment.  I wish I did act like my mom.  She encourages me to take all of my troubles to God.  She is the best cook; I wish I could recreate her recipes.  She can turn any living situation into home.  She knows when to give me a reality check, and when to let me just cry.  Watching my mom cry as she left me in Syracuse is one of the hardest things I've been through.  She told me she knew I was ready and that was the only reason she could get in the car and drive away.  I still don't feel ready, but her confidence in me is what gives me the confidence to press on this year.  Even though she has true horrors in her past, my mom has such grace and composure.  I only wish that I could mimic that and be as Godly of a woman as she is.  Mom, I love you.  

Gospel Bracelet

 

Me and My "Mini-Me" Camper, Bridget

Well, in my last post I told you all I would the Gospel Bracelet.  In Junior Camp, this is the device we use to explain the story of the Gospel.  To break the Gospel down into its most simple form comes down to 3 things: We lost it all...He did it all...We gained it all.  We take this concept further on every Thursday of camp.  There are colored beads that we put on a string for the bracelet.  Each bead is a different color symbolizing the story...

First comes the yellow bead.  The yellow bead represents that the story begins with God.  He was there before the beginning of time and created us.  God created a place that was absolutely perfect.
We lost it all through sin, though.

The black bead, which represents sin, shows how we have separated ourselves from our Creator.
God loved us so much that he sent his son to die on the cross.  Jesus took our place and died so that we wouldn't have to.  He experienced the wrath of God and bore all of it in our place.

Thus, the red bead shows God's love for us and the blood of Jesus shed for us.
The story doesn't end there, though.  Jesus didn't just die on the cross.  He rose again and conquered death.  As a result, our sin, in God's eyes, has been washed as white as snow.

 Thus, white bead represents the clean heart that we have been given.  
When Jesus left, however, he didn't leave us alone.  


The blue bead is the symbol of our constant companion the Holy Spirit.  Jesus sent the Holy Spirit in his place.  As I explained to the kids, the Holy Spirit is the Jiminy Cricket of sorts.  He is always there telling us when we do right and wrong.  

The green bead is a reminder of the growth we must make once we are Christians.  There is only one person that has ever walked a perfect life upon this earth, and that was Jesus.  Thus, because of his example, we must strive to grow up more like Jesus.  Just like we grow physically, we must also grow spiritually.  In order for this to happen, we can't have the green bead without the blue bead.

Lastly, comes another yellow bead.  This story must begin and end with God.  He is the author of the Gospel.  If we believe in the Gospel when we die, we get to go to Heaven!  The world is not our final resting place, and our soul longs for something more.  Thus, the yellow bead represents Heaven where we will meet our Creator and praise our Savior for eternity.