The Curly Life of Kay

Hello curlies and gents! Yesterday, I went to Dollar Tree and Target in hopes of finding a new eye shadow palette, as I have slowly but surely grown bored of my current collection.  I had a few gift cards that I hadn't used yet, and I figured it was time to update my make-up bag with a couple of goodies. 

Mini Make-Up Haul (minus a few items)

So, at the end of my trip I had obtained:

Dollar Tree Items

• A purple beauty blender dupe from the Dollar Tree (Not pictured because I've already used it..oops)
• The L.A. Colors Shimmering Loose Eye Shadow with Brush in the color Radiant.  (BES404)

Target Items

• Wet n' Wild Mega Length Mascara
• E.l.f Eyelash Curler
• CoverGirl Clean Invisible Concealer in the color Honey
• The Nudes Eyeshadow Palette by Maybelline 
• LA Palette Nude 2 by Loreal 

First up, the beauty blender dupe! First let me say, I've never used the original beauty blender, so I can't review it in comparison to the original. As far as it's ability to blend, it does the job. It is a little firm, but is still flexible. For $1 it's definitely worth it, that's a $19 discount from the original!



Next, The L.A. Colors Shimmering loose eye shadow, $1 at Dollar Tree.The first thing I have to mention is the horribly executed packaging. The container is not the most ideal case for an eye shadow. The brush is inserted in the top of the container with a small opening 3/4 into the container. It's pigmented from the swatch test I did, but I have not used this one on my eyes yet. So far I'm not excited about the product, but it was only a dollar, so I can't be but so upset.



 
The Wet n' Wild Mega Length Mascara was only $2.97 at Target. It advertises to give you 80% long looking lashes, to lift lashes invisibly, and to have a clump free formula. The brush is kind of thin for what I'm used to, but after 2 applications, my eyebrows appear nice and elongated.




E.l.f Eye Lash Curler, $1 at Target. I haven't used this yet, but it appears to be your standard generic eyelash curler.

CoverGirl Clean Invisible Concealer in the color Honey, $5.99 at Target. I have seen this product in local drugstores like Walgreens around $8.99 so this is a great buy at Target. I use this primarily under my eyes, it applies smoothly, and when using the beauty blender with this product, application is even simpler. It blends in very well, and is actually a pretty good match to my skin tone. Very pleased with this buy!


The Nudes Eyeshadow Palette by Maybelline, $9.99 at Target. Once again, I saw this same product ON SALE at Walgreens for $12.99, so another point for Target for price! I absolutely love the shades in this palette! I adore golden, tan, and nude eyeshadow looks and this palette is perfect for those combinations. It has examples of matte and shimmering shades, light to dark hues. They apply easily and pigmented, and blend very well.




 Palette Nude 2 by Loreal, $15.99 at Target. This palette has more blush-nude hues, alot of rosy, red hued colors. These are perfect for adding a little color to your everyday look without being too drastic. They also allow for more formal or occasional combinations. This palette also comes with a dual-ended brush, one end with the generic foam tip, and the other a small brush that is good for applying to the corners or blending the crease.Yet another buy that I am extremely excited about!

Loreal LA Palette Nude 2

And that wraps up my impromptu purchase! I hope you enjoyed my mini-haul/review. Let me know if you have tried any of these products, or if you have any questions about them! Until next time curlies and gents!

xoxo,
Curly Kay

Hello curlies and gents!

I just wanted to share an amazing recipe that I found on Pinterest and attempted tonight! Try it yourself!

Lasagna Stuffed Shells - here's the original recipe, I adapted mine slightly.

Ingredients

• 20 jumbo shells
• 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 cup Mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup chopped spinach (drained)
• 2 cups of Ragu Sweet Italian sausage and cheese tomato sauce
• 1 lb of ground beef

Something that many on the outside wouldn't know about me is that I have a tendency to isolate myself. I'm not really sure when this came about seeing that as a child, and even in my adolescence, I was a social butterfly. Over the years, however, it seems that I'm slowly becoming a lone wolf. It's not a conscious choice that I made, but I can't say that it has been completely awful. Since this personality change, my work ethic and productivity have vastly improved. In the not so distant past, while I may have been having fun socially, professionally I was not giving my best efforts. Often times I would show up to work lethargic and absent minded after a late night of partying and fun, and I'm sure it goes without saying that those actions began to affect my work ethic. I showed no initiative and the quality of my work was steadily declining. Over time, that issue seemingly fixed itself as my personality silently changed. I had no desire to go out to clubs, and physically seemed incapable of staying up late anymore. As a result, I started growing distant from good friends and surely becoming a homebody.

Although it has been great watching myself grind and pick up the slack I had caused, I must admit that I miss having fun. Not just Netflix and blogging fun, but hanging out with friends, creating lasting memories! It sounds simple right? Just get up, and go out!  However, there's a much bigger roadblock standing in my way - my lack of trust. It's almost unavoidable for me to have my trust betrayed in some way, shape, or form. In this aspect of my personal life, I often feel like Eeyore, and that there is a storm cloud above my head permanently. It's almost easier to avoid the betrayal by limiting my friends, than to convince myself to trust a newcomer. In addition to trust, I'm at the point in my life where my peers as well as myself are coming to crossroads in life decisions, many are moving away to pursue career options or to simply start fresh in a new environment. Slowly, but surely, the last points in my circle are spreading about the country and making it harder to keep bonds anew. Yet what is this, but another reason to remain a lone wolf?

In addition, it's hard to keep like-minded friends, when as the years go by you begin to have less things in common. For instance, friends I made when single and partying may not share the same views I have now that I'm in a committed relationship. While some friendships are mature enough to look past such seemingly small differences, others may become lifeless without said connections.

I've made many points regarding why its hard to make new friends, or keep the old ones, but at the end of the day, I will inevitably be on my own if I don't try. Though trust is a large factor in my fear of making new friends, maybe I need to look into a new approach. Instead of cutting off people, I can filter the information I share and the energy I put into something. I can agree to disagree, and respect that even with misaligned perspectives people can still remain friends. That's my goal for the remainder of 2015, evaluate my current friendships, and repair and maintain the ones worth keeping. Resolution season is just around the corner and to be frank, I don't need the dead weight.

I can't be the only lone wolf out there, comment below or email me your perspective!
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @lifeascurlykay !

xoxo
Curly Kay

So I've made it to the end of the first quarter. In this time, I've created all of my lessons (some with the help of teammates), graded my own student work (as opposed to pushing it off on others), performed benchmarks, assessments, and conducted over 20 parent conferences in this last week. I spend my nights, and often times weekends, in my classroom preparing for upcoming lessons, redecorating, or brainstorming how I can close the achievement gaps my students are facing. Currently, a normal weekday for me consists of waking up at 5:45am, getting to work by 6:40am, planning/prepping lessons until 8 am, teaching from 8am-3pm, and more planning/prepping/organizing from 3pm-5pm, sometimes 6pm.

In addition to my "Netflix and Chill" hour, I now also enjoy browsing teacher resource pages, teacher blogs, and scouring through Pinterest looking for new activities/lessons to prepare. Last Friday we tracked-out for the next two weeks, and what did I spend my first weekend doing? Grading the first few assignments of 2nd quarter, organizing my grade book, and researching the topics of my next unit in social studies so I could begin putting together the resources I (as well as my students) will need. The worst part? My teammate and I were just texting about how much we miss our kids already! Do you really think our kids are thinking about us on the first few days of their 2 week break? The chances of that are highly unlikely.

Now don't get me wrong, in these 4 days off, I have had a little leisure time in-between planning and teacher blog stalking, but my original plan for balance was to swear off of school-related tasks until at least Tuesday of this week.. but I couldn't even make it through the weekend.  *sigh*

It's quite concerning if you ask me, I mean can a teacher really be addicted to their classroom? I had never heard of such a thing! Of course my friends and co-workers tell me I need to take a break, and even I sometimes think I need to take a break, but in the midst of that break, I tend to feel the need to grab my laptop and work on something. Maybe it's deeper than my role as a teacher. Maybe it's more about my addiction to planning things? Yeah...no... because in other aspects I am honestly not that pressed about planning. As strange as it is to say, it's almost therapeutic for me to be alone in my classroom, Pandora flowing, working on something on my to-do list. At this point I'm almost thinking an intervention is necessary!

What do you think? Are there any teachers/educators out there that feel this constant need to work on lessons/plans/organization? Or maybe you're in a different career, but feel the same way about your duties/tasks? Let me know! Comment below or email me at mscurlykay@gmail.com.

Don't forget to follow me on twitter @lifeascurlykay

xoxo
Curly Kay