In's and Out's 7

In’s and Out’s: very short and not nearly as gratifying as a favorites video.

In...

My shorter hair - I know I got my extensions out ages ago but I really can’t get over how good it feels to have all natural hair. Not only does it weigh less and feel more bouncy and fresh, but it also requires so much less maintenance. I can dry my hair in about 5 minutes now, run a flat iron through it and go. If having extensions did anything for me it taught me to appreciate my natural hair so much more than I ever would have. I’m not making any promises to never get extensions again, and being a total beauty girl by love and by profession I probably will, but still…its nice to know that I am happy with what I have.

The plush carpet in my LA apartment - My apartment has the fluffiest, softest carpet I have ever felt in my life. I have no idea what kind it is but it feels like a shag rug when I step onto it. After living in my house in college for 2 years with literally the cheapest carpet in the world (think the blue industrial kind with no padding at all) this is a total luxury.

Speaking of that apartment, Blair and my new office room - another favorite of mine; we have been working on setting it up nicely. We each have a matching desk and chair which we are going to use when we want to edit, blog, answer emails, or anything of the like. It makes us feel all business like which in turn helps us get more done. I am also buying a little shelf to put behind my desk, which will hold beauty products I want to review and write notes on.

This blog - call me crazy, but reading my old posts makes me happy sometimes. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I’m always in really good moods when I write on here. I think writing in and of itself makes me happy.

My bathtub - This is just a general “in”. I have been taking baths like crazy, mostly because it gives me an excuse to lock my door and read for an hour. Everything about bathtubs would be an in, except for my bathtub in LA, which is an out. It’s unusually oval and I don’t fit in it properly, unless I sit Indian style, which is so weird I don’t even want to go into it.

Photography – I have recently fallen in love with photography. I really, really, REALLY want to take a class, so if anyone knows any good classes in the LA area please let me know!

Out...

One apartment “out”, my closet is inside of my bathroom, which I really dislike. I had first pick of the bedrooms and I chose mine, even though Blair’s closet is NOT in her bathroom, so I must live with it, but honestly I wish both rooms had it out in the bedroom. I feel like the steam from my showers will ruin my clothing! Bad, bad, bad!

The loudness of my house in the morning - I don’t know what it is but both the humans in my house and the dogs like to be extra loud until I wake up, and then they settle down. I think it’s a conspiracy.

The creepy bird creatures from the house of night series – last night I wanted to see the moon and stars as I fell asleep, so I opened up my blinds and got back in bed. This only succeeded it giving me the creeps as I imagined those scary creatures lurking outside my window, watching me sleep. Closed went the blinds and on went the light, resulting in no goodnight moon for Elle.

Christmas Eve

I woke up with this morning with every intention of filming a Christmas Eve vlog like I did last year, but sometimes you have to just go with the flow and do what feels right in the moment. And today, on this beautiful Christmas Eve, spending as much time with my family was just what I needed to do. I truly believe in doing what makes you happy in the moment, as long as you are not affecting others adversely. I am currently wrapped up on the couch in a big pink fluffy blanket, looking at the twinkling tree and listening to my mom and dad chatter about dinner, tomorrow morning, and past Christmas's. I just overheard "It's supposed to snow tonight. I haven't told the girls yet because they will get disappointed if it doesn't happen," which added to the magic of the evening.

For days I have been running around, completing errands that had to be run before Christmas. Now everything is done, every package received from the mail, all the presents wrapped and under the tree, the Christmas meal cooking and simmering, everything prepared. In a little bit mom and dad will call us to the table and we will eat as a family, passing things around and eating as much as we can. Afterward we will be stuffed and content, and we will sit in the living room in front of the tree, sipping on hot apple cider and listening to the crackling fire.

Later on after everyone settles into their rooms I will take a bubble bath with my Lush Christmas Eve bubble bar and completely unwind so I can fall asleep. When I was little I literally could NOT sleep on Christmas Eve, but for the past couple of years it has gotten easier and easier. I think tonight will be okay because I got up really early this morning, so I might be sleepy by bedtime. Either way, I plan on putting on the second half of "It's a Wonderful Life" and falling asleep.

Earlier I finished Safe Haven, the book I was reading by Nicholas Sparks, after which I sat on my couch and cried. It had an amazing ending that made me tear up in that lovely way books sometimes do. How is it that one author can have such a plethora of amazing stories? I would be so curious to know his story, or learn where his inspiration comes from.

I hope everyone has an amazing evening and day tomorrow, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, and that everyone remembers what this day is about: family, happiness, and celebration in what you believe. Sleep well.

Goodnight moon,
Elle

Festive Nails and Good Cheer

"At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year."
-English Poet Thomas Tusser

This quote makes me feel joyful; I love it and think it completely accurate. That is exactly what I have been doing, I've been running around making "good cheer". Last night I snuggled into bed early and enjoyed falling asleep to "The Santa Clause", one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. Today I ran last minute errands, wrapped presents, spent time with my family, and filmed a holiday tutorial. I can't believe it's already the night of the 22nd; time is going by too quickly and I have a long list of things I need to complete before settling into bed on the night of the 24th.

Tonight I painted my nails with the most perfect shade of festive red. It's called Miami Beet from the south beach collection and it's perfect, creamy and gorgeous :) It looks slightly pinker in the picture than in real life.. it's more of a deep blood red. Either way it reminds me of crushed up cranberries or the red of my Christmas stocking.


My baby sister also got her nails painted; a candy cane red and white striped masterpiece. I think it turned out really cute, and she was so excited she couldn't even sit still long enough for me to take a decent picture of it. It's first a white base, followed with horizontal stripes from a red nail art pen. Pretty simple, but for her it was like Christmas came early.


So here I sit up, late tonight, sipping on hot chocolate and editing my tutorial, completely content and happy with life and the world. Sleep well everyone, I hope thoughts of sugar plums dance in your heads.

Dream well,
Elle Fowler

Peppermint Bark: One of my Favorite Holiday Treats

I'm currently snuggled in front of our fireplace, watching my mom and sisters put the final touches on our Christmas Tree and passing out the Peppermint Bark that I just made. I tweeted a picture of it and got a ton of response back asking how to make it - so I figured I would do a quick blog post. I love this treat around the holidays to enjoy in front of the sparkly tree but it's also a quick and inexpensive treat to pass out to your neighbors and friends. You can whip up a few batches in 10 minutes, and then package them in a pretty little box with a bow - and there you have it, a super quick festive present.


All it takes are two ingredients, a double boiler, and a cookie tray. Like I said, very easy. For each batch you will need:
One 1 pound bag of white chocolate pieces - the ones I use look like this picture (I found this on Amazon haha!)



One 5oz. bag of peppermint crunch. I got both this and the white chocolate at a little bakery shop in town.


Last thing you need is a double boiler. My mom has one in her kitchen, but if you don't have one and don't know what they look like here is a picture:


You first bring the water to a boil in the bottom pot, and then pour the white chocolate into the top pot. Make sure to keep stirring the chocolate as it melts, keeping care to keep every drop of water out of the chocolate. If water gets in the chocolate it won't melt smoothly! Once the chocolate is melted pour in the peppermint crunch and stir it up. This entire process is only about 5 minutes long :) Then spread it out on a cookie sheet (on a piece of wax paper) and let it harden. Mine cooled and hardened in about 10 minutes. After that, break the bark up into little pieces and snack away!

Finished peppermint bark (1 batch worth, minus some snacking):



YUMMM!!! Tweet me and let me know if you try this out... it's delicious.

xoxo,
Elle

the snuggliest kind of night

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of SlipperFairy.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

Lights off, snuggled up in bed in my most comfortable pjs, candles flickering in the background... this my favorite kind of night. Sometimes I look forward to this all day, and then I cuddle up with a good book or a romantic movie. Every now and then it seems that blogging is just the thing to put me in that zen mood. There is something very relaxing about writing on this blog, and this is really the only time that I write - the middle of the night. So here I am, happily typing and sipping on my chicken noodle soup.

Speaking of being very comfortable, I am currently loving a particularly snuggly find of mine. They are my slippers - and I am in love. I was actually sent a couple of pairs over Thanksgiving break to try out, but I immediately realized I wanted to buy my mom a few. I have two favorite pairs - my pink flip flop slippers and my little furry booties. The flip flop ones have a quarter inch of memory foam in it, which is definitely enough to sink down into. It kinda gives me that "ahhh" feeling, you know? I don't think the booties have memory foam in them but they are still quite comfy and more "fashionable" than the flip flop slippers (at least in my mind). These are machine washable and very durable, so for those of you that love slippers they would really great to try.

To be quite honest, my mom has always had this weird phobia of her feet touching the ground, so I grew up with her always telling me to wear slippers or shoes. I think I rebelled a little and tried to walk around barefoot all the time, but as I've gotten older I have started to appreciate a comfy slipper on my feet. (does that mean I am turning into my mom?) (on second thought that's not so bad considering she is the cutest mom ever).

The company that makes these slippers, Dearfoams, caught my attention with this cute little contest they are having called the Slipper Fairy. It's basically a "let's give away tons of free slippers" contest. You can win up to 15 pairs of free slippers by entering in one of 4 ways:

• Tweet it: You just tweet about who you'd like to give the @dearfoams to this holiday season. You have to include the hashtag #slipperfairy
• Say it: talk about who you would give the slippers to in a youtube video and submit it to the site.
• Sing it: Sing the Slipper Fairy song on youtube and submit it to the site.
• Match it: Play instantly on the site.

The match it option is really simple, you just type in your email and see if you instantly win slippers for you and your friends.

I would really appreciate opinions on which ones to order my mom for Christmas. I want to get her two pairs, but I don't know which ones. I think the ones that are my favorites might be to young for her, so I think I will pick her out something different. Feel free to leave suggestions for what you think she would like (or what you would give your mom)!

The Slipper Fairy is also donating 500 pairs of slippers to US military families who have loved ones overseas in our name (mine and all of you reading this blog!), which is amazing and very, very generous. I really want to thank them for that, because they did not have to do that, and I REALLY think that the recipients are going to love them.

I am down to my very last noodle...mmmm soup :) I like to pretend that the weather is cold outside, since it is December after all, but alas... LA is quite warm. Somehow it still manages to feel like Christmas though; when I was at the mall earlier they were playing holiday music and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So on that note... I am going to burrow down and zzz. Goodnight!

xoxo

Elle Fowler