My boyfriend and I

The Hobbit

Who else is excited for this movie? I wish it wasn't going to be a whole year until it's released! The book is one of my favorites, I can't even count how many times I read it growing up. The movie looks very well done, on the same level as LOTR. I can't wait to see the dragon! Described as one of the last great dragons of Middle Earth, Smaug, like all dragons, had thick scales of armour which made him invulnerable to attack. Unlike other dragons, Smaug's centuries of sleeping on his treasure horde had caused gold and gemstones to become embedded in his soft underbelly, making his hide even more impenetrable. *end dorkiness*

Ugg and Emu Boots

Nothing feels better in the winter than slipping on a pair of warm shearling boots! My favorites this season:

Ugg Bailey Button Triplet Boots

Emu Naloo Boots

Emu Alba Boots

My 29th Birthday

Still can't believe I turned 29 on Saturday! It seems like just yesterday I was lamenting the fact that I wasn't 21 yet and now here I am. Where does the time go? My amazing boyfriend made the day so wonderful-I woke up to pink roses, the black Ugg Bailey Button Triplet boots I have been lusting over, and steak and lobster dinner reservations for later in the night. We went to Gregory's Steakhouse in Allentown, the surf and turf was great!  Feeling so blessed right now, I can't wait for our house to be finished!

 

Can you tell I love getting flowers?

Playing with a friend's Olympus DSLR

Have you ever tried an at-home chemical peel?

My skin usually is drier in the winter and I have to switch over to a more heavy duty moisturizer. I love the fact that chemical peels can help exfoliate my skin so that skincare products can penetrate deeper. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to test drive a new skin peel from Skin-Peel.com called the Fusion Skin Peel. It sounds perfect for clearing up those dry areas and evening out skin tone! 

A multi-acid, multi-enzyme peeling solution suitable for all skin types and issues. Minimal irritation, almost no downtime, and fabulous corrective action. An amazing Fusion of exfoliating agents that produce a Fusion of skin benefits:

• Clears acne conditions.
• Reduces age spots, melasma, discoloration.
• Improves skin texture and tone.
• Softens crows feet, fine lines, and wrinkles.

They have other peels you can check out..
Glycolic Acid Peels
Salicylic Acid Peel
TCA Acid Peel
Jessner Peel
and they also have new skincare products.

FTC: Samples will be sent to me for review by skin-peel.com through Sheblogs.org

Cute midnight visitor snacking on the crapapples

Found this cute little guy munching away on crabapples during one of our night walks..one of my favorite things about the Beltzville Lake area is that there's always something going on!

Burt's Bees Sensitive Skin Facial Cleanser & Daily Moisturizer Review

 Burt's Bees Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin Facial Cleanser & Daily Moisturizer Review

Being a BzzAgent, I had the opportunity to test two products from Burt's Bees new line of Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin.  I was sent the Facial Cleanser and Daily Moisturizer to try out on my face, which can sometimes be sensitive.

This new line is different and very gentle with natural ingredients such as cotton, rice, and aloe in the formula to reduce the possibility of irritation.  In fact, 99% of the makeup of these products are completely natural ingredients so you can feel good about what goes on and into your skin.

The Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin Facial Cleanser has Quillaja, which is the natural foaming agent, and Yucca for cleaning in this soap-free way to wash away makeup and dirt while moisturizing at the same time.

The Sensitive Daily Moisturizer won't clog pores like some other products with mineral oil.  This one uses rice extract to keep the face well hydrated and aloe for calming. I found that it did a pretty good job of moisturizing my skin and calming the redness, and made makeup application much smoother.

The Sensitive Facial Cleanser with Cotton Extract lathered very well and the consistency is very thick and creamy. My face felt very moisturized after rinsing, but I also noticed that there was residue that made me feel like my skin wasn't completely clean. This just wasn't strong enough to remove all of my makeup, particularly stubborn eye makeup. I think this would work well on those light makeup days when skin is red and irritated-it's a very calming cleanser that did make my skin noticeably softer than usual. I love that it didn't leave my skin feeling "tight" and dry like many cleansers do. 

Best of all, these products are made with natural ingredients and not tested on animals. I would definitely recommend them to anyone with sensitive skin who is prone to redness and irritation.  I got to review the facial cleanser and daily moisturizer, but there are four products in total in this new line – Sensitive Facial Cleanser, Sensitive Daily Moisturizer, Sensitive Eye Cream, and Sensitive Night Cream.  The best part about these products is that they can be found right at your local store (Walmart, Target, etc) and they range in price from $9.99-14.99. 

To learn about Burt’s Bees® Natural Skin Solutions please visit:
Burt’s Bees® Website
Burt’s Bees® on Facebook
Burt’s Bees® on Twitter

Disclaimer:  I am a BzzAgent and therefore received free samples and coupons for this product. ***

Top 7 Beauty Essentials

Inspired by a post on my favorite beauty board Beauty Bling I decided to post about my current top 7 beauty essentials. Are you on the Bling? I'm jessilynn19, look me up! I would love to hear your must have beauty items.

1. Rapidlash-I've been using this every night for the past 3 months and notice a huge difference in my lashes, especially in length
2. NYX Terra Cotta blush-great pigment, very natural looking-I find myself reaching for this daily
3. MAC Woodwinked eyeshadow-I love that it's softly metallic and so easy to blend
4. Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Zero-smoothest, longest lasting liner, still impressed by this
5. Kendi Bamboo Dry Oil Mist-my hair just soaks this stuff up! I spray it on my ends while damp and my hair feels so much silkier-this is a new staple! I got the 100 pt sample from Sephora and just caved and got the full size, glad I did
6. BeautyBlender Sponge-I mist this with the moisturizing spray before dipping into my foundation and it looks airbrushed-one of my favorite buys in a long time
7. Cinema Secrets foundation palette-I still have a bit of a summer tan so I love being able to blend the colors together as my tan fades. I apply with the damp BeautyBlender sponge-the trick is to wet the sponge so that foundation is perfectly thinned out, it keeps it from looking cakey throughout the day

Rocking the Poodle Skirt for Halloween

CostumeSupercenter.com Halloween Costume Review

This 1950's poodle skirt outfit I received from CostumeSupercenter.com is so cute and surprisingly comfortable to wear. It's a simple one piece design with a black and white striped lycra top attached to a pink felt skirt. It comes with a black belt and black neck scarf, which ended up tying around my ponytail. My boyfriend made a homemade belt loop out of black electrical tape to help keep the belt fastened since there's no loop. The poodle on the skirt is black with little mini sequins that are actually part of the fabric so they don't fall off throughout the night. I don't own a pair of the traditional bobby shoes so I paired it with some black mules that were sitting in the back of my closet. This costume is so versatile-you could wear it to a party, to work, I love that it's appropriate for so many occasions.

1955 Ford Sunliner convertible generously provided by Mr. Ron Lokay of Northampton, PA

I'm very impressed with the wide selection available on CostumeSupercenter-they have tons of costumes in every category imaginable and there are always great deals to be had. I especially appreciated the helpful size charts and customer reviews. I chose a size small based on the chart and it fit perfectly. It was very easy to pick out a costume without a lot of guesswork. They ship the same day that they receive your order (mine came in 5 days!) so there's plenty of time to get a costume in time for Halloween. 

Check them out here!:CostumeSupercenter.com

Disclosure-I received a sample product in order to write an honest review. No financial compensation was provided and all opinions given are strictly my own.

Halloween Smiley Cookies Review

 Smiley Halloween Cookie Review

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year-I have a blast decorating the house with orange lights, pumpkins, and spooky black cats. I usually do quite a bit of baking and can't resist whipping up a few of those gummy worm cupcakes, or a bowl of Halloween punch surrounded my spiders and bats. I go all out! This year I was lucky enough to receive some bewitching Smiley Halloween cookies from Smileycookie.com. They're adorable Jack O Lantern shaped gourmet sugar cookies that are so festive and cute! I arranged them on a plate with a black napkin and fall leaves and even adult's eyes lit up like kids when they saw them. Needless to say, they didn't last very long! I couldn't resist sinking my fangs into these delicious Halloween cookies, especially in such a cute pumpkin shape with candy corn eyes. Hand iced and made fresh daily, they are perfect for any Halloween party snack, Halloween gift basket, or any fall occasion. Head over to Smileycookie.com and watch your friends and family goblin them up! 

Smileycookie.com has generously created a special offer for my readers just in time for Halloween-simply "like" them on their Facebook page to get 20% off of any Halloween cookies or gift baskets. 

"Like" Smileycookie.com on Facebook here!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Jack Sparrow at Country Junction

I got distracted by this awesome statue of Captain Jack Sparrow while we were shopping for furniture at Country Junction in Lehighton. I think he'd make a great addition to the farmhouse, but I'd settle for one of those cool home bars!

Stars Wars Cereal and $25 Wal-mart Gift Card Giveaway

 ****ENDED-Congratulations to Mari!****

Are you a fan of Star Wars? Starting September 16th for the first time ever you can pick up the complete 9-disc saga on Blu-ray at your local Wal-mart!

This incredible collection unites all six Episodes together for the first time in stunning HD quality with the purest digital sound in the galaxy. With over 40 hours of thrilling special features, including all-new content created exclusively for this release, you can journey deeper into the Star Wars universe and discover more than ever before.

In honor of the release, select General Mills Big G cereals have a limited edition Star Wars good versus evil image on their packaging, which when combined creates this cool panoramic poster.

* Exclusively at Walmart, look for specially marked boxes of Big G cereals, including Honey Nut Cheerios®, Cinnamon Toast Crunch®, and Lucky Charms®. Collect all three to create a Star Wars panoramic poster showcasing your favorite characters, like Darth Vadar™, Luke Skywalker™, Han Solo™, Princess Leia™ and more.

* Marking the first time ever that the full Saga is available in one complete collection, the 9-disc STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA are available on Blu-ray now, courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

May the force be with you as you check out these Star Wars boxes at your local Walmart for a limited time only!

Win It! To celebrate MyBlogSpark is giving one of my readers a prize package which includes:

* One box of each of the following cereals to form your own Star Wars panoramic poster:

o Honey Nut Cheerios

o Cinnamon Toast Crunch

o Lucky Charms

* $25 Walmart gift card

To enter, tell me who your favorite Stars Wars character is!

Extra entries

* Follow me on on Google Friend Connect

* Comment on another non-giveaway post (up to 5 extra)

* Follow me via Twitter and leave your Twitter ID

Learn more online
• Whole Grain Nation Website http://bit.ly/wholegrain
• Star Wars The Complete Saga Website http://bit.ly/starwarsinfo
• Walmart Website http://bit.ly/walmartsite
• Walmart Facebook http://on.fb.me/fbookwalmart
• Walmart Twitter http://bit.ly/tweetwalmart

This giveaway will end October 5, 2011 at 11:59 pm(EST). Giveaway is open to US residents. The winner will be chosen using random.org and will be notified by email. The winner will then have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure: The cereal, gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

New Element dress I got from PacSun

I'm a sucker for crochet backs and I love the cute coral color!

Leopard Frog

Enjoying a sunny day on Beltzville Lake

Tadpole Bill rescued from the bait shop for me

He now has a new home in the pond!

Wood Frog

These frogs are gorgeous! I chased a few out of the tall grass so they wouldn't get hit with the mower.

Prefense Review and Giveaway Ends 8/10 *CLOSED*

Sponsored by Tomoson.com

I'm a big fan of hand sanitizers-I love that I can throw one in my purse and be covered no matter where I am. One of my new favorites is Prefense, a unique hand sanitizer that actually continues to protect you for 24 hours or up to ten hand washings. I love that it's never sticky, contains no drying alcohol, and uses silica to keep hands moisturized and germ free for hours.  The light, citrus scent from essential oils smells very fresh and natural. Simply pump the foam into your hands, rub them together and let them dry for all day protection.
 A few great reasons to use Prefense:
•    No alcohol! Prefense is made of all-natural ingredients and has absolutely NO alcohol in it!

    •    Our technology protects you for 24 hours or 10 hand washings!  This is what moms really love to hear about!

    •    Prefense is non-toxic and safe for kids! It will not hurt you if swallowed!

    •    Prefense is silica based which means it doesn’t dry out your hands like traditional alcohol sanitizers.  It actually smooths and softens your hands. You can totally see this when you apply it!

    •    Prefense protects against staph, strep, E.coli, drug resistant MRSA strains, and more. We fight germs that other hand sanitizers can’t.

    •    Because “one spray lasts all day” our 1.5 oz Prefense Foaming Hand Sanitizer offers 120 applications, costing only $.08 per day, compared to $1.20 per day with alcohol hand sanitizers.

Win It!One of my readers will receive a free 8 oz. bottle of Prefense. That's 640 applications!
To enter, tell me about the germiest place you've been to recently :-)
Extra Entries:

• Follow me on on Google Friend Connect
• Comment on another non-giveaway post (up to 5 extra)
• Follow me via Twitter and leave your Twitter ID
• Follow Prefense via Twitter
• Become a fan of Prefense on Facebook

One winner will be drawn on 8/10/11  using random.org and will be notified by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond. This prize is being fulfilled by Prefense. I received a sample of Prefense for the purpose of review. The opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced in any way.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com created by WebBizIdeas.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.

Signs it must be the opening night of the latest Harry Potter movie

The Goodyear Blimp

I've never seen a blimp before so it was pretty cool when it flew right over us!

Mama Duck with Baby Ducklings at the Trexlertown Park

Rabbits!

There are so many rabbits out this season, I love seeing them

Spider in a funnel web

Little Brown Frog

Still need to ID it!

Pink Lady Slipper Orchids

We were lucky enough to catch these blooming!

Jury Duty finally over!

Glad to be back :-)

The Ring of Aldyth Stone Legend

I wonder what the origins are?

How much is that doggie in the window?

An adorable French bulldog at the Poconos Flea Market

Blue Heron at the Bethlehem Rose Garden

I hate mosquitos!!

I've been using OFF! spray as well as the fan with the refill pads. What works for you?

Cute pink limo parked at The Promenade Shops

The driver showed us inside and said it's used for kid's parties, I would have been thrilled to ride in this as a little girl!