It's no secret that I'm a makeup addict. I love playing with different types of makeup and experimenting with different looks. So, every year around Thanksgiving I take advantage of the Ulta Pre-Thanksgiving, and Black Friday sales. This is my time of year to stock up on makeup and treat myself to more expensive brands. This year I might have taken advantage of two different days of sales before Thanksgiving (then the Black Friday sale)!

Day 1:
The first sale was my smallest order for the year. The Urban Decay Nocturnal Shadow Box was on a pre-sale for the Cyber Fundays event. Ulta discounted the Shadow Box to $17.00 from the regular price of $34.00. I debated about skipping this offer and seeing with the Cyber Fundays price would be but ultimately decided to go with this sale. After seeing the slightly more expensive price on the Cyber Fundays event I'm glad I went with the pre-sale.

The second item that was in this order was NYX Beyond Basic Look Set in 18. I saw this set and thought it would be fun to add some red eye shadow to my collection. For the Latin Music concert I just performed in I would have loved to have access to red eye shadow to do a dramatic, sassy, tango type look. This set looked like it would cover all my criteria and add in another fun lip color to my collection. The addition of a matte liquid eye liner helped convince me that I needed this set.

The third and final item in this order was a simple sharpener from the cheap item section. I have needed a large sharpener for one of my highlighters and at $2 I figured this would be a good investment. There isn't a picture of this sharpener partially because I'm not sure if I actually like it or if it's pure trash.

Day 2:
Day 2 was the Cyber Fundays event. I was curious how much the Shadow Box would be, and what other items might be discounted or offered.

The first item was the NYX Meet the Metallics Vault, which includes 12 different lip creams. There are 6 metallics and 6 matte versions of the metallics. I'm super excited to try the metallics and glad that they're small in case they look horrible. Just glancing at the box I can already tell that two colors, Dubai and Rome won't be good shades for my skin tone.

The second item is actually once I forgot I ordered until I saw opened the box today. It's the bareMinerals Naturals Eyeshadow Kit. This includes 14 different eye shadows and one double-ended eye brush. I typically love the bareMinerals line and was happy to see a kit with mostly natural type colors. I'm excited to try this kit and use the style guide that was included.

The next three items have been staples in my routine for a few years. They are the Plump for Joy Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner, and the In A Heartbeat Blow Dry Accelerator Spray from Not Your Mother's. Because these were all on sale and things that I'm currently out of I decided that they were worth including in my order.

The final two items in this order were from Clinique. They are the Luminous Glow Kit, and a travel size of the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. The Luminous Glow Kit includes a Foundation Buff Brush and Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight stick. I've recently fallen in love with highlighting and figured that the Chubby Stick would be a nice upgrade from my typical powder highlighters. The Moisturizing Gel was honestly purchased to bump my Clinique order from $39 to $40 so I could get the Clinique gift.

Freebies:

I am a sucker for freebies. As seen above in my Clinique purchase I have no issues bumping a purchase slightly to ensure that I get the freebie. These two orders included a satisfying about of freebies that will be fun to try out!

The first freebie is the above referenced Clinique bag. This included a travel size Take The Day Off Makeup Remover, a travel size All About Eyes cream, a travel size High Impact Mascara in Black, and a Quickliner for Eyes Intense in Intense Ebony.

 Both orders included the usual Ulta sample of which I elected to choose skincare. I'm not a huge fan of fragrance samples partially because I usually end up spilling them when opening. The skincare samples I got were for the Benefit Porefessional, Olay Tone Perfecting Cream, Skin & Co Whipped Cleansing Cream, and Skin & Co Facial Oil. These are super small samples but should each have enough to give me one application of the product. 

The rest of the freebies came from the Candle Light Beauty Bag. This was an item that was included because my second order reached a specific purchase value. To break up the samples easier I have divided them into a few different pictures.

Included in the Candle Light bag was  small tube of Origins GinZing Peel-off mask, a packet of Bliss Lemon+Sage Body Butter, a packet of Vitabath Cool Spearmint & Thyme Body Wash, and a packet of Nyakio Red Ginseng Line Smoothing Eye & Lip Cream.

There were two primer samples in the bag. One primer was the Smashbox Photo Finish Primerizer, which I've wanted to try for awhile, and the second was the Too Faced Hangoverx 3 in 1. The Too Faced primer advertises itself as a Primer and Setting Spray, that can also be used o refresh skin during the day.

 Two highlighters were included, one Ulta band and one Tarte. The Ulta highlighter is the Liquid Illuminator Starlight which appears to be a cream or gel highlighter. The Tarte is the Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Highligher in Stunner. I love the Amazonian Clay products by Tarte so I'm super excited to try out this highlighter. It looks like it's highly pigmented with a ton of shine.

The bag included two face creams, the Perricone D Multi-Action Overnight Treatment, and the CliniqueFit Post-Wokout Mattifying Moisturizer. Also included in this picture is the Alterna Haircare Caviar Cream because I just saw CC Cream and didn't bother to actually read the package. 

The only foundation sample was for the Urban Decay All Nighter Liquid Foundation. This sample includes 6 little pods of foundation. I would consider this more of a "find your match" kit as opposed to a true sample. 

In addition to the Caviar Cream there were also four additional hair samples. These include a bottle of the It's a 10 Miracle Silk Leave-In, KMS Hair Play Molding Paste, Phyto Paris Phytoelixir Intense Nutrition Mask, and the NIA114 Technology StriVectin Hair Max Volume Shampoo and Conditioner. 

Much to the dismay of my carpet, there were also three fragrance samples included. These consist of Gucci Bamboo, Sweet Like Candy by Ariana Grande, and Versace Man Eau Fraiche. The Versace will most likely end up as part of my brother's Christmas gift. 

Finally there were two coupons included. One for $5 off a $15 purchase from the Ulta Beauty Collection, and another for $15 off an online purchase of $75 or more. 

Overall, I am very pleased with my pre-Thanksgiving haul for this year. The freebies are pleasant and my purchases will be extremely fun to play with! 

It’s that time of year again. Leaves are falling, Starbucks holiday cups have just been released, Thanksgiving plans are being made, and equestrians everywhere are cringing while the trainers rub their hands together like praying mantis. It’s No-Stirrup November. That dreaded month where stirrups go missing or are neglected at the order of the trainers.

Thankfully, my trainer has had me work with only the vaulting saddle for the past few months. Something about me depending too much on my stirrups for posting and not having enough core support. Hopefully, this means that NSN won’t be as painful for me as it will for others. But like every exercise NSN comes with goals that need to be achieved.

1) Canter in the vaulting saddle.

I can walk, sitting trot, and posting trot well in the vaulting saddle. But I have yet to try cantering. We were going to attempt it last week but I conviently had on a girth that was too loose so that idea was dropped in the interest of safety. I fear cantering without my stirrups, and the comfort of my saddle, but I know I need to do it. So my goal is to do at the minimum the long side of the jumping arena in the vaulting saddle at the canter. Without turning into a potato...

2) Posting trot in my saddle.

I can sort of do this one but the slickness of my saddle is a bit of a deterrent. My saddle is “sticky” when I clean and condition it but that’s been neglected because I’m lazy. This goal is simple and I know I can do it. I just need to drop the whole “saddle is slippery so I’m going to die”.

3) Two point/half seat without stirrups.

This is another one that I can sort of do but I need to get better at it.

I’m thankful that Cupid and I have the ability to work with the vaulting saddle and that my trainer has been having me slowly build up strength. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t recommend doing stirrupless work for entire lessons but we’ve become so adjusted to riding without stirrups (or a saddle) that it’s been more comfortable for me to just ride in the vaulting saddle.

Cupid telling me what she thinks of our work with the vaulting saddle

 So equestrians, who is doing No-Stirrup November and how are you doing it? Vaulting saddle? Bareback pad? Taking off or crossing your stirrups? My plan is a mix of both vaulting saddle and crossing my stirrups.

Occasionally, I do things without reading the fine print. Like signing up for the 2018 Princess Half without realizing that my good proof of time won't work this time around. Cue the panic of being in the last corral when I realized this around June. (Yay for not taking races seriously since I moved!) I quickly checked all the local races for a 10k, 15k, or half that would help me get a new proof of time and discovered the Celebration Rotary Club's Pancake Run. It looked like a nice, easy course, and it was cheap. So I signed up and started to train!

The race took place in Celebration with the start and finish line by the Fire Station. I was worried about parking so I arrived at Celebration at 6:00 and was pleased to see parking at a church next to the fire station. From there I went to get my packet, which was easy to find but a bit strange. Usually I have to show ID to receive my packet but this time I just needed to give them my first and last name. Once I had my packet I went back to my car to nap for a bit until 7:15 when I planned on warming up.

When 7:15 rolled around I headed to the start and stretched. The race organizers did have a woman leading Zumba as a warm up but I didn't like the idea of changing my usual warm up.

There wasn't much warning before the starting gun went off but when it did my phone decided to stop speaking with my wireless headphones. I updated my phone during the last Apple update and it's given me issues with connecting to FitBit and my wireless headphones. Thankfully the interval timer I use vibrates strong enough so I can feel it through my arm band.

The first mile of the race is pretty unremarkable, honestly for someone who runs through Celebration weekly the whole race is pretty unremarkable. I was able to settle into a nice comfortable pace and pulled off a 9'07", well below my target pace of 9'40" for the first mile.

The second mile I pulled off a 9'52" as I settled into my intervals. This was below where I planned on being but I felt comfortable so I worked on maintaining it.

Miles 3-6 evened out into 10'11", 10'17", 10'14", and 10'16" respectfully. For the final 0.2 miles I could see the finish line and decided to give it everything I had left. There was a girl who I had been trading places with for the majority of the race and I had it in my head that I couldn't let her finish in front of me. Honestly, I feel like she felt the same way because once I passed her I felt like I could see her try to match my pace.

I finished in 1:05:06 which was slower than my goal of 1:00:00 but faster than my PR of 1:14:46. I'm pleased with my time and how I did, but it's been irritating me how close I was to getting that 1:00 10k. At the minimum I fully plan on going at or under 1:00 for the Pancake Run next year.

Overall, I enjoyed the race. It was a basic, cheap, local race that was fairly organized and on a flat course. The biggest issues I had were that there were no parking instructions given prior to the race, you couldn't hear the announcer/DJ if you were close to the starting line, and traffic wasn't completely blocked from entering the course.