In Search Of. . . . Starbucks Secret Menu: Chocolate Pumpkin

In Search Of. . . . Starbucks Secret Menu: Chocolate Pumpkin

So in the spirit of blazing through the seasonal drinks, I've decided to do another of the Pumpkin flavors. The Chocolate pumpkin.

This one brought me amazing luck with a new job! HUZZAH!

Anyway, It was one of my lunch break because it had been a long day and it wasn't even noon. And for some reason, spending an exorbitant amount of money on coffee just makes me feel better.

Here's what to get

• Order a Pumpkin Spice Latte
• Add two pumps of Mocha

This one was pretty good. Not as good as the pumpkin pie, but still pretty good. It's kind of chocolately for my taste, so I would get one less mocha pump or a venti. If you like chocolate then you should be fine. It just kind of over powers the pumpkin spice flavor. You can get it hot or iced.  got mine iced because it refuses to be cold here.

See, here is where all the extremely stubborn people come. Like seriously you either are stubborn or get stubborn. It would stand to reason that our weather is also stubborn. Now, we've only got to flavors. Hot and mild, but I swear there is a cosmic battle every seasonal change because the current season refuses to give up.

As Always

In Search Of. . . Written Word: October Daily Blogging Challenge

In Search Of. . . Written Words: October Daily Blogging Challenge

So, I don't want this to become solely about coffee and moping around. I was looking for a photo challenge to do for fall and I came across this blogging challenge. It seems like a good variety of ideas from the blog

Obviously some of the days will be off because this one is for last year. Maybe I'll get around to making up a new one with these themes that match this month. *I did go ahead and fix it up. These will be the themes that the days follow, at least they should. I took the original attribution off just to keep from confusing people, but you can see it here at Girlmeetsworld.com

I hope I can keep up with the challenge. I'm certainly going to give it a go.
I'm going to leave it that because I'm outside at work and the sprinklers are getting me wet.

As always

In Search Of. . . Starbucks Secret Menu: Pumpkin Pie

In Search Of. . . Starbucks Secret Menu: Pumpkin Pie

So, in an effort to get back on track. I decided to get one of the seasonal ones, since PSL is back. I went with the Pumpkin Pie. It was a little bit of an adventure. When I go in to Starbucks, I show the people my phone, and they just ask me about number of pumps.

Well, last night, I did that, but the girl missed one of the key ingredients so I corrected her. Well, she'd written the wrong letter, and scribbled it out. She also got my name wrong.

Apparently my name is Brittany... it's not.
When the barista got ready to make it he looked really confused. "Does this one get 28 pumps of cinnamon docle?" He asked.
I looked at it like no. I like a little heat, but that would have been like doing the cinnamon challenge.
She corrected him. Apparently her srcibble out of the wrong thing looked like an 8 and she'd put a 2 in front of it.

So, no. This does not get 28 pumps of Cinnamon docle.

Anyway, here's the Pumpkin Pie

Here's the Recipe

• Order a creme based pumpkin spice frappucino
• Add Cinnamon Dolce 1-3 pumps. I have a grande and two pumps which is perfect.
• Add Cinnamon Dolce sprinkles. They just substituted regular cinnamon
• Blend in whipped cream
• Top with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles. Again, I just had cinnamon and it was perfect.

Ok so whatever ones were my favorite, this one is my favorite favorite so far. It was sooo good. I wish I could explain the amount of excite I had when it tasted that good. It tastes like an actual pumpkin pie. I would most definitely recommend this one before the pumpkin season is over. 

I keep having this feeling it's over next week, but that's probably because there's no season change over here, so I have no frame of reference. Anyway, go get this one now. NOW! 

Here's hoping we find what we're searching for. 

As always

 

In Search Of. . . Beauty: Ipsy Glam Bag

In Search Of. . . Beauty: Ipsy Glam Bag

So, I've been on a beauty kick lately and decided to order an Ipsy Glam bag, and for those of you who don't know what it is, I'll explain. 

Every month you get a pretty nifty little bag and four or five either sample or full size items. You go to the ipsy website and take a quick little quiz to personalize your bag to your over all coloring and style. It costs 10.00 and that includes the shipping.

At one point it allows you to select a stylist. I think Ipsy assumes that you can tell just by these little pictures who your style most like. It doesn't work you need to go to their YouTube channels and see if you like them. You can do that here. You can watch a few videos and decide.

I had to go back and retake the quiz and when I did this I realized that I hadn't picked who I thought I'd like.

So I waited, rather impatiently for my first Glambag to come and it did. In a super bright pink bubble wrap envelope that I'm saving for later because you never know when you'll need one.

My bag and goodies were inside.

This is what I got.

ignore the Jewelry... I was playing with my new light box I made..

I got some pretty cool stuff. As you see, a lipstick, eye shadow, brow gel, some aragan oil for my hair and a little lotion. I haven't tried the Aragan oil yet, but everything else I have. 

I'll give you a little run down. I might do one each month I get one of these. I'm not sure how I feel about the cost/worth ratio. 

I took some vanity shots of me wearing some of the products. We can start with my favorite thing. The Lipstick. It's City Color Cosmetics, City Chic Lipsticks in color Je t'aime. 

Here's the actual lipstick color and since that doesn't do it justice, here it is on my mouth. 

That's more true to color. Anyway, I like this lipstick a lot. It goes on very smoothly and the color lasts for a while on your mouth. Granted it doesn't have stay power, but I felt like that it kind of stained my lips. Not in a bad way though. Like my lips retained the color after eating and daily wear. It wasn't anything magnificent, but at the same time the formula is better than a lot of lipsticks. It's more moisturizing than most lipsticks. I think this was my favorite thing in the whole bag. 

The thing I was the least impressed with was the lotion. 

It's a standard run of the mill lotion. It seals your skin, if that's the right term and it's unscented which is good in for scent free work places. Sorry you can't see the title in the picture. I was playing with my light box and getting shadows and lighting... 

It's First Aid Beauty's Ultra Repair. 

Yes, it does well as a lotion, but nothing to write home about. Actually I feel like it left residue on my skin which means my skin didn't actually take the moisture. 

Next is the Octavia Molina Hair product Aceite de Aragan Hair Oil. Basically what you do for this is put it in your hair for extra moisture and to smooth it down. Aragan oil is actually really good for your hair in general. But, if you're like me, you might be allergic to it and it will make your head itch. So it's comes down to a benefits vs pains problem. At this point, my hair is pretty all right. Back when I bleached it four times in a night. (No joke. I did.) I would have poured the entire bottle on my dry ends, but now I don't know if I need it. 

I'm going to combine the last two items. Mostly because they're both eye products.  The Ipsy Nyx Cosmetics Eye Shadow Trio 

And Elizabeth Mott's Queen of the Fill Eyebrow Tinted Brow Gel

The eye shadow was my second favorite thing in there. It's pretty pigmented, which means it's got a lot of color. Except for the lightest shade. I feel like that's more sparkle and less color, but it's supposed the be nude. The other two are really great and blend well.  

I like the Eyebrow gel too. I only recently started messing with my eyebrows. I've prefered thin ones when I actually care. This makes it a little thicker and really fills it in over my brow shadow I use. 

Here's a few vanity shots of me wearing both. 

 

You can't tell, but the left eyebrow has deep scar in it and this really fills it in and just kind of holds things in place. It's really nice. I know in these shots I have a few other colors from my Ulta palette. I think in the brow. But I have the middle shade mostly in the crease, some in on the lid and the dark on the outer corner. 

And that my dears is the Ipsy bag. Oh yeah, here's the actual bag, which I love. 

It's not huge, but it's a good travel size. I like the color to. It's actually as gold as it pictures. 

Ok, so that is the Ispy bag. If you want to get your own Ipsy bag you can use the referral code down here

or go to the Ipsy Website

Here's to hoping we find what we're searching for

As Always, 

In Search Of. . . Starbucks Secret Menu Wednesday: Butterscotch Latte

In Search Of.  . . Starbucks Secret Menu Wednesday: Butterscotch Latte

Well, I started this a while back for no apparent reason I just didn't finish. But, if you go to this post, I kind of tell you what happened... which really now that I think of it wasn't anything.

Anyway, with out any further delay here's the Butterscotch Latte....



Oh look, the creature is trying to be proactive. lol. No, I went out for Starbucks Sunday night and it was humid in the desert so I was cold. I decided to get a hot drink rather than a frappe. I think I'm still scared from the last frappe I had.

I don't remember what the thing was... coffee cake maybe. Who knows? Not I said the cat.

I've been wanting to try the butterscotch latte so I very tentatively ordered it this time. Granted I ordered a Venti, mostly because I wanted a lot of warm.

Here's how you get it:

• Order a latte
• Add Caramel and Toffee Nut Syrup 3-5 (Since this was a century ago, I have no clue what I got.)
• Top with whipped cream, caramel Drizzle and Caramel Brulee Bites (Apparently I didn't get those either. C'est La Vie)

These were my actual opinions that I wrote down the next day like normal. . . I just didn't put the picture on it or post because I'm a nimrod.

This one didn't really taste like butterscotch to me. It tasted good, but I think maybe my ratios were off. It's been a long while since I had butterscotch though, so maybe I've forgotten.

Oh well, it's one of the better tasting ones. 

In Search Of. . . Thoughts: Eeyore

In Search Of. . . Thoughts: Eeyore

This place has been pretty desolate....

Oh look a tumbleweed... That's pretty desolate right?


I'm not entirely sure why people think that tumbleweeds mean a desolate place. I live in the west, and I've had one encounter with a tumbleweed. I was driving down a road during a rainstorm, and the tumbleweed ran into my car. It got hooked on the grill and since I was in traffic I couldn't get it off the front of my car.


Anyway... I will say this blog has been pretty desolate lately as that draft for the butterscotch latte in my post box reminds me.


As some of you may have gathered from previous posts, sometimes I get low. It's a typical thing for people to get low once in a while, but this past month, I think was one of the lowest, busiest time for me in a while. Between getting ready for the wedding, which was beautiful, and I don't know what else.


I was full-on Eeyore. I think I gave him a run for his money.

There was a whole week where I came home and went straight to bed. Woke up around nine to walk the dog, and then doodled around for a few hours and went back to bed.


My hobbies were literally eating and sleeping. Unfortunately those hobbies are like rabbits that keep reproducing themselves. And those babies have babies, who have babies, who have more tiny evil little babies who only sleep and eat until you're drowning in these baby bunnies. It's kind of like Tribbles from Star Trek, only less happy.


I didn't write. I didn't draw. I most definitely didn't work out or eat healthy. No joke, I think I went to McDonalds and got the works like three times, which for me, is ridiculous. At one point I remember there being cookies involved. Yay for fatty, carby, bad for you-y food right?


The only thing I did do was watch beauty channels on YouTube, which inspired me.  To spend money. So on one of my trips to the land of mall, I decided to forage in the jungles of Ulta for hair stuff and other stuff I didn't need. However, the wild beauty beasts attacked me, and the natives refused to let me go until I agreed to take some of the wild beauty beasts with me.


With those safely in my orange protection back, I decided to explore the rest of the land of mall. Because touching things, even if you don't buy them for some reason calms me down. (It's probably the copious amounts of walking I do that gives me endorphins.) Anyway, so I was wandering in the vast land of mall when I realized, I didn't want to shop.


That's like Superman not flying.


Shopping is my super power.


I was low, like I said. Full-on Eeyore. I went home and laid down and thought about it. I don't have to write or anything, but I just can't go on living like there's nothing left in life. I needed to get up and do something.


So, I took two weeks and wrote this post. Bought some fruit to begin a new eating habit to replace the Big Macs, and bought a crate to crate train the dog.


I know that no matter what I do, I will go low. It's a fact of life, but I don't have to stay low. I can get back up, dust myself off, and face whatever has got me down at the moment. (Even when there's no real reason to be sad.)


Now, the blog's got it's fall background, and hopefully I'll get back to semi regular updates.

Here's to hoping you find what you're searching for.


As Always,