Fun and Mental Changes

YAY!  I love announcing winners!!!  And this one is a special one for me since the prize features so many of my own designs!!! I want to thank everyone who participated in this Twilight:  Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 Blog Hop (click HERE if you haven't done the hop yet.  There are some awesome projects!!!).... I so wish I had prizes for everyone.  Without further adieu, here's the blog candy winner!!! Laura B said... Your keepsake box is so gorgeous! Such a beautiful way to keep your memories!:) Awesome candy, too! Laura B, check your email, I just sent you a quick "Congrats" message. Welp, that does it for today.  I hope everyone has a wonderful AND SAFE Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow.  I'm off to chop up some celery and onions this evening.  I'm not exactly thrilled with chopping onions so I saved it for the very last thing before bed tonight.  Now that I've completed this post..... I no longer have excuses to procrastinate!!!  So ...

YAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!  IT'S HERE!!!  Breaking Dawn pt. 2 opens today and we're kicking the fun off with a Twilight Breaking Dawn Blog Hop!!!!  You should be arriving from Kelli's blog.  Isn't her tag AWESOME!?!?!   If you're just now joining the hop, you WILL want to start the hop at the beginning... trust me, you don't want to miss anything from this group of talented ladies.  Here's the whole hop list: Alison Laura Rebecca Kelli ME<== You Are HERE!!! Sugar Stephanie And now for MY project.... BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY BLOG CANDY AT THE END!!! Here's my Twilighty keepsake box!!!  I had an absolute BLAST making this box and will be using it to hold all my pictures from Forks and La Push as well as pics from the various premiere parties I've attended/hosted over the years. This originally started out as a faux book box.  I painted the spine black using acrylic paint and covered the rest using paper from the DCWV Immort...

Ok, so the movie officially opens on the 16th, but TOMORROW I will be taking in a 15 hour Twilight marathon that will end with a viewing of Breaking Dawn pt 2!!!  I'm sooooo excited!  For those of you who cannot join me for the marathon, please swing back by my blog here tomorrow because I'm ALSO participating in a Twilight Breaking Dawn Blog Hop and created something VERY special that I CAN'T WAIT to show off tomorrow.  Please tune in..... I HAVE TWILIGHTY BLOG CANDY!!!

Yeah, I'm excited.... FOUR MORE DAYS!!!  Here's a card that I made to kick things off this week.  This one is actually a FitterTwit original design.  Yepper gang, I created the chess pieces you see here.  This Twilight fantasy world that I live in inspires some pretty cool stuff  (Click HERE and HERE to see more)!  I DO love this one!!!  And wait till you see what's coming later in the week (pssst.... I'm participating in a Twilighty blog hop on Thursday)!!! The chess piece digi IS available for purchase!!!  Kick me off an email to fittertwit@yahoo.com if you're interested.  Price is $4.00 and will be sent in JPG format.  I also have a wolf digi, a paw print digi and an apple for sale as well for $3.00 each (click the link above to check out the apple).  All are JPG format. ***I used Spectrum Noir markers to color this image:  IG1, IG2, IG4, IG9, DR7, CR5, CR7

Yep, it's official... the Christmas shopping season is well underway.  Right now there isn't a single major chain out there that isn't COMPLETELY decked out in Christmas cheer, but while they are all gearing up for their holiday profiting, I'm reminded that supporting our small business folks is probably the greatest gift we can actually give to our struggling economy this Christmas.  I believe it is the greatest gift we can give OURSELVES!!! And the Institute For Local Self-Reliance agrees with me.  As published in their December 24th article from LAST Christmas, Top 10 Reasons To Support Locally Owned Businesses , they site some pretty great reasons that benefit us all!  My favorites on the list are building community prosperity and creating competition to ensure innovation and lower pricing over the long term.  I also feel pretty good about supporting someone's kid going to school rather than supporting some no-name "CEO purchase a 3rd vacation home...

Check out what I featured for my Spectrum Noir design team post today!!!  I figured, what could be better than a tutorial on coloring the creases and folds in a witch's hat???  After all, it IS the day before Halloween!!!  So once I had her colored, I KNEW exactly what I was going to do with her!!!  A coffin treat box of course!!! Isn't that coffin treat box CU-UTE???  I'll go ahead and list the Spectrum Noir colors I used to color this gorgeous little Saturated Canary witch from the Witchkeys digi (click HERE to get the digi) and then I'll post the tutorial pics for creating hat creases.   Witch's Hat, Dress and Shoes:  IG9, IG4, IG1 Accessories:  PL1, PL4, OR1, TN3 Skin:  EB1, EB2, IG3 Hair and Book of Spells:  TN7, TN3, TN1 "Best Witches" outlined with CG1 Ok, here's the tutorial: Ok, that does it!  Be sure to check the Spectrum Noir blog for MORE projects, tips and tricks from th...

Ok, so this cat was copied (mostly) from the OH-SO-TALENTED YouTuber Becxstar123, you can check out her tutorial HERE .  I used Diamond FX in Black, White, Yellow and Orange.  I finished my eyes using Ben Nye Black shadow.  As I've been saying for weeks, the right brushes and the right products makes creating looks like this surprisingly easy.  My contacts are from Colorlens4less.com and are SUPPOSED to be yellow cat eyes, unfortunately the yellow is so light that my blue eyes show through making those cat eyes look like a dingy green.  I really was hoping for yellow. Every pair of contacts I own have been purchased from Colorlens4less.com and MOST of my contacts are perfect.  The only problems I've had are with the yellow pairs.  For whatever reason the yellow just isn't quite opaque enough and end up looking green. Also, a quick note about cat eye contacts as opposed to other contacts that have a round center.... the black slit in the eyes DO N...

Ok, so my friend Bailey requested a Zombie look.... this one's for you Bailey!!!  This look is PERFECT for my blood red contacts ( ColorLens4Less.com )!  It makes this look seem a bit more "diseased"!!!  For this one I started with a white base and then layered purple, red and grey to create the zombie-like shadows.  I drew on the scratches on the eyes using my black eye liner.  SO SIMPLE!!!  I'm so hoping I get to redo this look on Bailey.... hopefully I can get her to model too! ;) 6 DAYS LEFT!!! UPDATE:  Since Bailey's request.... I also received a zombie request from my friend Krista. Maybe I can get them BOTH to model for us!?!  Fingers crossed!

Ok, so a couple of days ago I featured a dark fairy.... well, on special request, here's my "light" fairy!!! Scroll to the bottom for complete instructions on how to fix a cheap wig or keep reading on how I did this fun Halloween makeup on a budget. So my makeup was done in purples and blues (Yeah baby... that's blue mascara!!!!  Hello, 1980's!) using colors from my new Day, Night, Play Palette Purse I just got from Ulta.  This thing is AWESOME and quite a find.  It's on sale right now, buy one get one half off.... just in time for Halloween dress up!!!  I actually used a coupon and got it for around $20, so it fit my quickly dwindling Halloween budget but made for quick work of putting this light fairy look together.  Check it out: The purple you see on my lips is actually the same purple I used for the crease of my eye.  To create those purple lips, I simply scraped some of the purple shadow onto my counter top using a clean bobby pin, wet a l...

This one calls for a red and gold kimono.... don't you think!?!  If only I could get my hands on one this close to Halloween.... EVERYONE IS SOLD OUT IN MY SIZE!!!  Crap! I don't have a lot to say about this look other than to say that I used a mesh cap to create the scales.  The makeup was simply black, red and white eyeshadow!!!  Yep, another SUPER easy one for someone on a budget.  The eyes were lined using a Revlon liquid eyeliner pen and the lips are just my red OPI lipstick.  That's it.  The contacts were featured a few weeks ago (see that look HERE ).... so you see..... absolutely no bells and whistles.  Honestly, the right kimono would be all the bells and whistles you'd need to make this look stand out.  TRICK-OR-TREAT!  Seriously! Hang in there gang.... 9 more days!!! YAY!

This one is a FAVORITE!!!  When I got the white manson contacts from ColorLens4Less.com I also got this pink pair (cuz they were havin a sale for two!!!) and I'm thinking that I love these THE MOST!!!  For this fun Halloween look I used all the same colors that I used for my Hatless Hatter look (call me lazy.... everything was still out and on my bathroom counter) except I muted all the eye colors and gave myself a deep lip color so that all the attention would be drawn to those A-MA-ZING pink contacts.  The one addition for this look is that I went around the entire perimeter of my face with grey eyeshadow.  I then used the grey to add very light shadows under my eyes, although, those rockin pink contacts are really the only thing I see when I look at this pic!!!  All that's left is to add a little glitter around the eyes and some fairy wings on my back and I'm ready to go trick-or-treatin!!!  10 DAYS LEFT!!!

Well.... so this in my LOOSE interpretation of Tim Burton's Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.  My pinks were more on the purple side, and I didn't have white mascara but..... didn't I rock those eyebrows!!!  LOL!  And honestly, my eyelashes are so blonde, I really didn't need the white mascara anyway.  I think, in the movie, the hatter had an orange-ish brown color lining his water line on ONE of his eyes and white lining the water line of the other, then white mascara on his lashes.  I didn't have the mascara or the orange-ish liner so I lined my water lines with white pencil.  Lucky for me I already have the orange hair, but unlucky for me my hatter is missing her hat!  I really dug this one even though I was missing quite a bit.... but this look still pulled together!!! This look features Illamasqua white foundation mixed with Mac NW15 Studio Fix Foundation.  I then used various pink, purple and red eyeshadows around the eyes and ch...

Ok, so this one is just a quick one.  I got my yellow cat eye contacts the other day and couldn't wait to put them in and play.  I originally was going to do a cat face for my next Halloween look in my Halloween series, but when I put the contacts in they turned green up against my blue eyes.  That's ok, I kind of dig the green hue, I just wish the color was more intense!!!  And a little thing I JUST learned with contacts.... THEY MOVE!!!  It was SO HARD keeping the vertical pupils vertical!!! But they were in and so this abstract dragon emerged. As before, this look features Ben Nye and Diamond FX makeup.  I used #2 and #4 round brushes along with a 3/4" flat brush... but no wig this time, so nobody laugh at my hair!  LOL!  The yellow cat eye contacts came from Colorlens4less.com (my blue eyes show through the yellow making them more of a greenish yellow cat eye). I'm thinking I need a little more practice.  The left side of my face ...

Ok, THIS is AWESOME!!! I am absolutely gaga and over the moon for this Great Pumpkin cake!!!  So BECAUSE of this awesome cake (that by the way, gets a MILLION high fives from me), I decided to host a Pampered Chef show ONLINE!!!  I NEED that fluted cake pan...don't you???  So no matter where you live in the United States, you can join the party... your stuff will ship to you.   Here's all you need to do: Simply go to http://pamperedchef.biz/alisonheikkila Click on "Shop" Choose "Pick a host" Type "Danielle" in the first host name box And "Johnson" in the second Then shop till your heart's content!!! How easy is THAT?!?  What a perfect way to celebrate the fall season.  Personally, I think this cake would look fabulous on EVERYONE'S table, and I'm working on a GLUTEN FREE Pumpkin Spice cake recipe JUST for this awesome pan and just in time for my Halloween festivities. I'm sorry, did I say one million high fi...

So it has been a long week and a half since my good friend Trish passed away and THANKFULLY another dear friend came in to town to make me feel WORLDS better.  She even allowed me to use her as a guinea pig model for my Halloween series here on my blog: Now THAT is friendship!!!  Check her out!!! I'm telling you.... the right makeup and brushes makes the WORLD of difference when putting together a look for Halloween.  This was my first attempt at doing someone else's makeup, but I'm thinking that I'll keep practicing.  Maybe I'll offer to do Halloween makeup for ALL of my friends!  Anyone brave enough?  LOL!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So for those who might be wondering what I used for this look... Diamond FX White applied with a lightly dampened makeup sponge for the white base Ben Nye Pressed Shadows in Brownberry, Black, White and Soleil Red Black details were done with Ben Nye Cake Liner mixed with a couple of drops of Ben Nye LiquiSet The fin...

Ok, so here's my ultra quick homage to the Scream franchise (serious Halloween fun)... and a fun, creepy image for my black Halloween mani!!! Shown here is CND Shellac in black pool with the fauxnad image I got from Beautiful Scratchers , image plate T29.  Word of warning with these fauxnad plates:  the images are much larger than other image plates so in order to actually wear this image, I had to grow my nails out.  Only my ring finger was long and wide enough for this image, which is completely fine since it's quite popular and fashionable to have nail art on only one nail.  And this one sure does look cool!!!  That black looks like glass!  Yep.... I'm heartin Shellac again!!! And more on the image plates from Beautiful Scratchers .... while large, the images are UNIQUE AND AMAZING!!!  I'm going to be getting a few more of these image plates in the future.  You'll definitely want to check them out.  I give Beautiful Scratchers 10 Hi...

I am GIDDY with excitement this year and am ALL OVER Halloween party design ideas!!!  So for my feature today on Spectrum Noir's blog, I featured THIS little guy: ISN'T HE GREAT!?!  He's actually an old image I bought from The Octopode Factory , but for some reason never used (silly me).  He is PERFECT for this treat bag place holder!!!  Here's a little tip for those who might want to give this one a try for an upcoming Halloween party.... color the image, scan it and then print multiple copies.  It is a WHOLE lot easier than coloring a ton of them for each and every guest.  Well, of course, unless you really love your guests and want to give each of them something you personalized for them.  But depending on your guest list, that might be A LOT of coloring!!! hehehehe! Here is a list of all the Spectrum Noir markers I used: Rabbit, Trousers and Shoes:  GG1, GG2, GG3, GG4, GG5, GG7 Ears and Nose:  BP6, BP1 and PP2 Hat and Shirt:...

OK, so I keep posting my Halloween makeup pics on Facebook and I keep getting comments about how weird I am.  Please let me assure you that while I certainly AM weird as all get out, the Halloween faces are NOT part of my weirdness.  Actually, it's really quite normal!  It's all because I ordered theatrical makeup this year for Halloween and ever since it arrived I've been compelled to play.... WOULDN'T YOU?!?  I mean, it's like getting a new toy.... it would be weird if I DIDN'T play with it!  Right?  And I suspect, like all new toys, this makeup will get "played out" and will eventually get old and I won't play with it as much (but let's hope not).  So until it does get old, how about we just say that I'm doing a "Halloween Series"?  That makes this whole "playin in the makeup" a little less weird.  Yes?  Alright!  Next up in the series: This makeup reminds me of some sort of voodoo tribal makeup.... I feel like I...

I think this is what drowning feels like.  I lost a friend yesterday.  And I'm afraid that I am just having a very hard time finding the words to express what the world lost.  I'm having a hard time KNOWING she's gone.  I just can't believe that Trisha Giallella died yesterday. I've known Trish for a large chunk of my life; she was the sister of my sister's ex husband. But for all the years that I knew her, I never REALLY knew her until very recently.  Oh sure, over the years I would listen in awe at all her stories.... stories of making movies in Hollywood, the wild parties and dating Rick James.  To a young girl of 15, those stories seemed like something from TV itself and far removed from my own piddly little life.  The fact that she even shared her stories with me sent me into a stuper.  I always had stars in my eyes when I listened to Trish talk, she was so glamorous and very, very tough... very passionate and good at "living".  I...

A few weeks ago I placed an order for theatrical makeup and just received it a short while ago.  I CANNOT believe how much easier it is to put a look like this together with the right makeup!!!  My last Halloween makeup post was all about keeping Halloween inexpensive, but this post is about what can happen when you invest a little!!! I literally completed this look (with hair) in under a half hour!!!  Halloween makeup has NEVER taken me less than an hour.  Oh, and that time included the contacts!  Hard to believe I know.... but I've been practicing.  See, my last Halloween makeup post included a link for a sale on Halloween contacts and I just COULDN'T pass up the great deal (click HERE for deets on the "great deal").  So when both pairs of contacts arrived, I quickly stored them in solution and have been popping them in once a day.  My poor husband!  He has NO CLUE what color his wife's eye's will be at any given time when he looks at ...

Oh how I missed you!  This is a mani I haven't done in quite some time and I JUST realized that it NEVER got posted on my blog the first time I did it.  I can't believe it!  It's one of my favorites... and NOT just because it's a Halloween mani (mostly, but not entirely).  I like it because of all the Konad image plates I get to use to create this wonderful Halloween collage on my nails!  So here it is for the first time here on FunandmentalChanges.com!!!  And check out my thumb.... My thumb is sort of an exception to the rest of the manicure because the scary jack-o-lantern is off of a "fauxnad" plate, but the rest of the Konad images plates are M3, M17, M18, C01, C04 and C05.  Wow.... that really IS a lot of plates!!! So my base coat is Nail Aid's Pink Growth Therapy, then one coat of Orly's Mirror Mirror and then the various images stamped in Konad's special black and white polishes.  I LOVE THIS ONE!!!  The inspiration for this ...

Alright.... just a quick one today since I'm in the Halloween spirit, I thought I'd do my nails using one of my favorite past Konadicures.  Some of you may remember this one from a couple of Halloween's ago and it just so happened to be my first run at a Halloween manicure!!!  So to recap, I just simply used a base coat of Nail Aid's Instant Wrap so that my nails had a nice strong base.  Then I polished just the tips using OPI's Tangerine Scene and topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite Quick dry top coat for a fast dry.  Once dry, I stamped the lace image from Konad image plate M69 using the Konad gold-black special polish.  Finally, I stamped the spider from image plate M1 using Konad's special polish in black and applied another top coat of Seche Vite.  That was it... couldn't have been easier.  This is probably one of the easiest manicures, but sure does pack a creepy yet gorgeous punch!!!  This was the perfect mani to keep me from miss...

Ok, as promised, here's my Shellac manicure after taking great care to use rubber gloves whenever my hands were in water or I was going to be doing something that was rough on my hands.  I'll start with the before pic.... Welp, they didn't make it the full 14 days, but they made it 11.  And to look at the picture you wouldn't know that they didn't make it because they still look shiny and incredible, but TWO of the nails pictured have some lifting of the product (I marked the lifting areas with arrows.  You can sort of see it in the picture on the ring finger).  The lifting is enough that it's catching on my clothes and being a regular pain in the butt.  So honestly, I probably COULD have gone the full 14 days if I didn't mind a couple of chips in the product here or there.  And truth be told, I've never been able to keep anything on my nails for a full 14 days (even fake nails had a hard time lasting that long) so I'm used to continual cha...

Ok, so I rented it and I loved it!!!  I hate that I loved it!  And I hate myself even more that I'm running out to buy it!  But watching this HILARIOUS movie remake reminds me of all the broken dreams and unanswered questions I was left with as a teenage girl while I manipulated and maneuvered my black and white TV antennae unavailingly to give me a clear picture of the hit Fox TV show. Back in 1987, Fox was a new station and did not come through very clearly on that trusty black and white and most nights it was as if my beloved Penhall was communicating to me from the other side through all that white noise.  Yes, I was in love with Officer Doug James Penhall and that teenage ritual would literally foreshadow the pain and heartbreak I would endure watching the end of 21 Jump Street the movie... and I'm STILL compelled to buy it.  If you haven't seen the movie yet, this post might come as a shock and should definitely be considered a spoiler for anyone readin...

Ok gang.... Halloween is in exactly 49 days.... YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!  And I've got to tell you, I'm EXCITED!  You can probably tell from the pic.  I sort of did a "dry run" today.  I mean, it's not like I grabbed my trick-or-treatin-pail and hoofed it door to door in my neighborhood asking for candy. Although, I'm not gonna lie, I was tempted.  How could I not be after spending the day at my favorite local costume shop, Mardi Gras . I was tipped over the edge when my special order theatrical makeup arrived in the mail.  So here I am in all my vampyric glory.... well, minus the fangs.  Or maybe there ARE fangs?!?  I mean, check out those canines baby: WHOA!  Extreme closeups make me look more like a werewolf than a vampire.  WOW.... I have some serious peach fuzz happenin here!!!  But this is a great pic to show just how doable an inexpensive costume can be.  Here I used three different shades of red lipsticks I already ow...

Ok, so yesterday was Labor Day and thankfully my Shellac Tropix manicure made it through the BBQing festivities!!!  Today begins another test!!!  What you see here is CND's Shellac Rubble!!!  THIS TIME I'm shooting for a full 14 day wear.  I picked up some lovely (and quite stylish I might add) rubber cleaning gloves.... I intend to wear these babies whenever I'm working with my hands.... for dishes, yardwork, etc.  I also strategically placed Konad nail art from image plate M36 on only ONE nail to see if the Rubble darkens like the Tropix darkened.  We shall see how long this manicure is going to last me.  Wouldn't that be great if I got MORE than 14 days of wear simply by making this one little change??? Hmmmmmmmm.... this might turn out to be quite an economical experiment!!!  I'll let ya know! :)