Doppelgangers, Werewolves and Vampires, Oh My!

If you follow me on twitter at all, you know that I am completely in love with the series The Vampire Diaries that comes on the CW.

Source: Uploaded by user via The Vampire on Pinterest

It's a show about vampires. duh. that meet a girl named Elena. There's a catch though. She looks exactly like someone from their past. You can imagine the craziness that can ensue. I won't tell you much more because I don't want to spoil it.

This obsession came as a total shock. I literally started watching it because my friend Ashley from Being Ashley was talking to me about it. I figured it would be a good show to have on in the background while I studied or cleaned or something like that. The first few episodes were exactly like that then it happened. The acting got better, the lines got better and the storyline got deeper and I was hooked.
Team Damon in case you were wondering. Seriously, let's just die at his good looks for a minute.

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But today, I'm not here to talk about the tv show series, although that's probably what you thought. Like just about anything these days, there is also a vampire diaries book series.

Source: amazon.com via Heather on Pinterest

Typically, the rule of thumb at least for me is that the book is going to be better than the tv show or movie. So, of course I was interested in the books. Now, someone gave me book 1 and book 2 years ago and I had actually started book 1 and didn't like it so I gave them away to a friend because she was interested.
Since I was so in to the show, I did a little research on the book series. The author is L.J. Smith and the first three were actually written in 1991. Then, pressure from readers caused the fourth book to be written.
Knowing this, I can actually kind of forgive the book series. A lot of the vampire powers and just, the overall mythology of the books is a little outdated and not like any other vampire things we are used to. Prior to this, my favorite vampire related anything was Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and it still kicks any other vampire-lore's butts) which was still created after The Vampire Diaries book series. 
Side note: If you're interested in why Buffy is so special and my favorite of all time, leave me a comment and I will try to write a post for you!
In 2007, a new trilogy, written from Damon's point of view was written and another trilogy is being written and released now.
After that third trilogy (still with me?) the book series will continue with a ghost writer. Uh. Oh. I do not like ghost writers at all.
Back to what I thought of the books though, because you probably don't care about all of this.
I decided to give the books another try read the second and third one on vacation recently. I skipped the first one because I honestly assumed I'd be repeating what I had already seen on tv and it seemed like the 2nd picked up at an important event in the tv series. 
They are nothing like the tv series. Let me repeat.
They are nothing like the tv series.
That may be one of the reasons I do not like the books. We'll never know. Honestly, I feel like the tv series is much more well done and the storyline is just better. I don't really think the characters are that developed in the books but I will admit that most of my hang ups are the fact that it is so different and in my opinion, not in a good way.
That being said, since this was a book series written in 1991, when teen fiction was a lot different than it is today, I'm sure it was a great book of it's time.
20 years later, I'm glad it was remade into an excellent tv series.
If you are one of those people that like to read books before seeing the movie/tv show, please do not read the book series and then not give the show a chance too. The two really are separate beasts with the same name. 
(I would go into why they are so different, but that would be spoiling it, and we all know how evil that is.)
Have you read the book series? Watched the tv show? What do you think of either?

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Dupe at the Drugstore

If you're into make up, you may have heard about the BeautyBlender that came out awhile back. Supposedly, it revolutionizes foundation application, giving you an airbrush look.
That sounds great but $20 for a sponge? One that I will eventually have to either buy the special cleanser for or throw away? No thank you!
I came across what seems to be a knock off at Walgreens one day for a mere $5.99. Now, I was pretty skeptical because I had seen reviews on Youtube for drugstore dupes and they were not good but I figured I didn't have much to lose for $5.99. (And if it didn't work, I could always return it!)
I will admit that I have not ever tried the beauty blender, nor do I own it so this isn't a comparison post. I simply wanted to try a make up sponge that claims to do the same as the beauty blender.
On the left is the knock off and on the right is the real beauty blender. I have seen the beauty blender in person and the knock off is slightly smaller. 

The general idea is that you get the sponge wet and then squeeze out the excess water and then use it to apply your make up. Below, the pictures on the left show it without water and the pictures on the right show it with water. 

As you can see, it does increase quite a bit in size after you get it wet.

Overall, I really like how this applies and I've switched to using it in my foundation routine exclusively, instead of my foundation brush or the circle sponges I used before. It's soft and it does blend the makeup in beautifully. Since I've started using it, I've also had people tell me that my face make up looks really pretty.

Like I said, I haven't used the actual Beauty Blender but since this so much cheaper and I do like it, I'm not looking to try to actual one any time soon.

Below is a picture of my face after just applying foundation with the blending sponge before I put on concealer or blush or anything else. 

What is your favorite drugstore dupe of a high end product?

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The Newest Family Member

A few weeks ago, I put up a poll in this post for you all to guess what mine and Cody's big news was. A ton of you voted that I got a new job, we bought a house, we were having a baby, we bought cars and a couple of you said we got a puppy.
In this post I revealed that Cody and I were actually getting our own place, an apartment, closer to the center of Memphis (we lived in a small town about 20 minutes away before) but I guess, in reality, there was another option that worked too.
The Saturday after we officially got the apartment, Cody and I went for a visit to my Mom's house where she introduced us, and later convinced us to take him home, this little guy.

If you follow me on my twitter you've seen me talking about him. His name is Exo and he's a miniature  (well, we aren't sure about the mini) dauschund and chihuahua mix aka a Chiweenie aka a German Taco or aka a Mexican Hot Dog. You know, whatever. (I'm partial to German Taco myself)

I didn't reveal him on the blog yet, partly because I've been so busy but also because it was touch and go as to whether or not we were going to keep him permanently. He was completely unhouse trained and house training a puppy is something I have never done before. It was rough. Especially during finals.

So much so that I had to send him back to my mom's just to get some studying done. While he was gone, I realized I really really missed him and convinced Cody to give it another chance, since we still had over a week before we moved into the apartment.

When he came back home, it was like a switch went off in his head! He suddenly knew where the back door was and went there when he needed to go! We also invested in a big puppy playpen (it's 8 panels that are each 2 feet long that you can configure in any shape you want so it's plenty big for him) and some puppy potty pads and we've all reached a happy medium.

So now, I'm ready to reveal him on this blog! He's 13 weeks old and he's officially the baby of our family which is good, because I don't want a real baby for a long time!

If you're anything like me, you want to know why we named him what we did. Well, since he's part chihuahua  his eyes bulge out. In hyperthyroidism (Grave's disease to be exact), you can develop a symptom in which your eyes bulge out called exophthalmos and so, Exo was named!
We had a rough start, but I am so glad that he's part of our family now. I honestly can't imagine life without him and I'm so glad that his breed can live for a long time!
Would you want to see update posts about the puppy on the blog?

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Life Lately

Welll helllooo everyone! It's been awhile! Well, I mean, sort of. I feel like I've had a massive decline in my internet presence over the past few months. Every single time I log on to twitter, it seems like I'm completely lost and blogs? Forget about it! I try to read where I can but life has just been moving so fast!
I think I'll have some time to actually be present in the cyber world for the next couple of weeks. I'm out of class until the very beginning of June and this it's time to put my nose to the grind (is that even a saying or did I make that up?) so I can graduate in August. 
I've been up to a alot. Just this past week, Cody and I moved into an apartment and then two days later, drove out of town to see my little brother graduate high school. It's been a whirlwind for sure!

This next week, I'm really hoping that I can get back into blogging and of course, get my new place organized. (Would anyone like a tour?) 

There are a few things that are going to change in this blog. For one, I took away GFC awhile ago. I realized that I was blogging for the numbers and not the content and it really bothered me. I know that with bloglovin, you can still see a number, but since it's a few steps to actually see it, I don't feel the urge to look everyday.

I also realized that my heart is just not into having sidebar sponsors. I was starting to feel pretty fake and like my sponsors were not getting their money worth. I'm working on some other things for the blog though. Don't worry! 

Another exciting thing is that May 27th is my one year blogging anniversary! I'm really excited, although I'm not totally sure what I should do to celebrate. What would you like to see?

I hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to an exciting summer!

What are your big plans?

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