casey's coruña

Since my last post was at the dawn of the century I feel as if I have lived a lifetime since then. I started a new job, quit said job, and moved to Spain. YES! I got that job I was discussing in that post and ended up in La Coruña, Galicia, above is a picture of the sunset from the Torre de Hercules. Below is a picture of the Torre, the oldest functioning Roman lighthouse in the world, NBD! This is also the topic that finally caught my dad's attention about my trip to Spain, I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm crazy for doing this. But he's a sucker for all things nautical so once I mentioned the port, the lighthouse, and the fact that the whole city is surrounded by water, we was intrigued.

So now I live in Spain, with a family who is absolutely great. I teach them English and they give me food and shelter . . . . and help me get a cell phone, NIE (foreigner's resident card), register at the census, figure out the bus, train, airport, set me up with Spanish classes, English private lessons, let me use their gym membership and have their housekeeper clean my room.

I feel like I may have gotten the better end of the bargain. Especially the ESL mistakes they make, probably the most entertaining things ever.

so I have applied to be a culture and language assistant in Spain for the coming year and I'm am currently waiting to hear if I get a placement!!!! In all the anxiousness I've been googling pictures of possible places I'll be living and here are the goods!

galicia

asturias

valencia

as the seasons change so do our shoes, wardrobe, and makeup but does our perfume have to too?

a frugal chick like me is always on the search for a fab steal (regardless if i have the pocket money for it) but when I saw this beauty at a Savers the other day I couldn't say no.

$7 later and this navy blue italian leather baby was all mine

proof enough that second hand stores have some amazing stuff hidden in the racks

I know that the neon and nude trend has been huge lately so when I ventured into ULTA the other day I decided that I was going to find my perfect nude polish.

Nude lips kinda make people look scary, nude nails on the other hand (heh heh hand) are simple and effortlessly chic.

so I made my way to the Essie area, because I heard fabulous things about "barefoot and topless" and found my perfect nude in "st. tropez".

DO NOT let it fool you! i looks a tad gray in the bottle but for a girl with fair skin and yellow-y undertones (and who actually wants a nail polish rather than a blurry clear coat, which a lot of nude colors are) IT LOOKS FAB! 

the mani is a little rushed DIY but the polish does add that little something extra!

So my monthly Chirstmas present came in the mail and this month it was pretty great! I have been subscribing to Birchbox for about a year now and really can't find anything bad to say about it. Some people don't like the products they get, some like every single one. Me on the other hand, I get products that I think are silly at the time and then 3 months later go back and use it.

So this month I kinda mad out like a bandit because I got many of the things I was interested in from the video! Heres my goods .....

ateiler cologne ambre nue - love all Birchbox's perfume samples but this one is very strong (think the eau de parfum version of Miss Dior) and VERY amber-y. I'll all for amber perfumes however I liked their sample of Juliette Has a Gun 'Not a Perfume' - that is a single note of gray amber and more subtle, and for me, more wearable everyday. 

evologie intensive blemish serum - AWESOME! this was one of the products I saw in the video and was PUMPED when I got it. Goes on nicely, absorbs in a SNAP! definitely may be my next full sized purchase.

nexxus youth renewal rejuvenating elixir - another thing I wanted from the video just because I knew I would never buy it for myself on my own. I used it on both dry and damp hair and personally using it on dry hair works better (because its made up of oils if your hair is wet you can't really feel how much you're putting on) you really only need a little bit and its great for dry ends and the little crown frizzies too!

sumita eye shadow pencil - really wanted to try this too but I got the pink color . . . . .I'm usually more of a purple/blue/green chick because pink tends to make my eyes look tired, HOWEVER this pencil redeemed itself when I did a purple eye look and when used under the purple shadow it added dimension, acted as a primer and looked great. So this is the SURPRISE FAV!

simple eye roller serum - my sister stole this from me and said it works great! diminished her under eye darkness and felt great going on. BONUS: put it in the fridge and the coolness will help depuff even more.

Spring has sprung!

so friends, today i was wandering through Whole Foods attempting to find ingredients for a new pinterest recipe i wanted to try. I found the things I needed and a few i decided i needed while walking around and went to the cashier. $40 bucks! an OBSCENE amount of money to a frugal chick like me, but in my defense i hadn't heard of a lot of the products i would be using and i knew Whole Foods would be super helpful in this area, and they were! the prices were just ridiculous.

once home i began my attempt at homemade raw vegan mint oreos (link below). now the pictures make them look AWESOME! and i'm recently a clean eating convert for medical reasons, so the chocolate aspect appealed to me, (and the fact that i wouldnt be super sick afterward from dairy and preservative rich oreo cream). So off i went! Blending and mixing, and then I got to the part where you cookie-cut the chilled dough and this stuff GOT EVERYWHERE. all over the spatula and my hands and the counter and then i read the part that says "roll out unused dough, chill and cut out until it is all gone and then dehydrate for 16-20 hours."

I get i was doing this on a Sunday afternoon but damn, AINT NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT! so i modified . . . . 

roll the dough again? please, after the saga that was the first ten cookies I used a Pampered Chef cookie dough scoop on the room temp dough and flattened it out with a butt of a cucumber I had just cut. (trust me it works and it didnt stick to anything!)

next the dehydrating? I'm sorry but 16-20 hours seems ridiculous. So i put those puppies in a 225 degree convention oven for 70 minutes. BOOM! done.

as for the filling, it looks all nice in the picture but it reality its mainly made of coconut butter. and what does butter do anywhere but the fridge? MELT. so word to the wise once you fill them slip them in the fridge to set.

all in all these things are delicious! and the recipe is worth a shot. if you have time to follow the recipe exactly, kudos! if not, they'll still taste great