DIY Perfume Car Air Freshener

What do you get when you have a used fabric softener sheet, a perfume tester and a plastic container (left over from yummy Japanese pudding!)? If you were MacGyver, you can probably build a small bomb with it; but I decided to make my own car air freshener.

Step 1: Stuff the fabric softener sheet into your plastic container.

Step 2: Pour the bottle of sample perfume onto the softener sheet (I have A LOT of these little sample perfume bottles. Sephora gives 3 samples with every purchase and I usually pick scents).

Step 3: Place your very own perfume car air freshener in your car. Enjoy!

Quick & Easy Everyday Smokey Eye Tutorial

If you're a mom you'll agree that time is something we do not have and cannot spare, but since I'm completely superficial and shallow, a portion -- albeit small -- of my time must be devoted to making up my face. Some people look good with just lipstick or foundation, but for me it's the eyeliner. If I don't have eye makeup on I look like Casper the friendly ghost, and not in the cute way. Anyway, read on for a quick and easy look.

Step 1: Apply SPF. Sun protection is very important.

Step 2: Use concealer to quickly cover up any problem areas; for me, it's around my nose, on my chin, the top of my nose and under my eyes. Use fingers to blend.

Step 3: Apply eye primer.

Step 4: Apply eye makeup.

Look at me! No makeup! ... not entirely. I have permanent eyeliner tattooed on my lower lashes. The experience was extremely painful and I remember almost wetting myself during the process. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I ever do the top lashes? No. I only did the bottom because my eyes were so watery and eyeliner always smudged on me.

Using an angle brush, line your brows with brow powder. I use the NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Taupe.

Use a brow pencil and gently feather out the shape you like. I use the Shiseido Eyebrow Pencil in Natural Black. I usually just follow the natural curve of my brows. If you have time, you can use a spoolie to further blend out the colour for a softer look.

Using a brush, gently pat your favourite metallic grey-purple shadow all over lid. I'm not sure what the name of the shadow I'm using is, but it's from the NYX Butt Naked Palette. 

Using the same brush or another brush (whatever you want!), deepen your crease and the outer V with a darker grey or brown shadow. Here I'm using a dark brown shadow from the NYX Butt Naked Palette. Blend with your fingers if you find there are hard lines.

Line your upper lash line. I'm using the L'Oreal Extra-Intense Liquid Pencil Eyeliner in Charcoal. 

Using a pencil brush, smudge out the liner. For a smokier look, you can pickup a little more of the dark brown shadow on your brush and smudge it into the line.

Line your lower lashes with a waterproof metallic liner. I like the Urban Decay Shadow Liner in Mushroom. 

I like to further smudge a dark brown liner on the lower lashes. It makes my eyes look bigger and brighter. What's the point of permanent makeup if I'm just going to use eyeliner anyway? It was great for the first few years (I had it done in University) but it faded over the years. Oh well! ... If you have time, you can add a highlighter underneath your brow and to the corner of your eyes. 

Curl your lashes and you're done! I'm not wearing mascara here, but if you have time, go for it!

How to Prevent Duvet from Slipping Inside Cover

The duvet that my husband and I use have little buttons along the inside so that it won't slip and slide when we sleep. Recently, we bought a very cute (but very cheap) duvet and twin cover from IKEA for Elizabeth and every morning, I have to tediously realign the corners. Since no one should ever live like that, I googled (again) and found a method that was easy to implement.

Step 1: Find ribbons or some sort of string you can sew onto the duvet and cover. I'm using some ribbons I found in my closet. The length of the ribbon should be slightly longer than the width of the corner of your duvet.

Step 2: I folded the extra material over the other side of the duvet and sew along the sides.

Step 3: Cut another length of ribbon. The ribbon should be long enough for you to tie a bow. Turn your cover inside out and sew this ribbon onto the corner of the duvet cover.

Step 4: Slip the ribbon that's sewn on your cover through the ribbon you've sewn on the duvet, and tie a bow to secure the duvet to the cover.

Step 5: Invert your cover and give it a shake. Voila! This should prevent your duvet from moving again inside the cover. Good night!

Flower (Pen) Power! DIY Cute Teacher's Gift

For Teacher's Appreciation Week I collaborated with a very creative mommy from Elizabeth's class and made personalized flower pens for our teacher. We wanted to show our appreciation and sincerity by hand making something small, but cute. After researching for a few ideas, we settled on making flower pens. They're cute, pretty and useful too.

What you'll need:
1. Florist tape
2. Pens that you can remove the tops of (just the crappy ones you get from the Dollar Store will do)
3. Silk flowers
4. A container to hold the flowers in
5. Hot glue gun
6. Alphabet beads (optional)

How you'll do it:
Step 1: Remove flowers from existing stems and remove the top of pens.

Step 2: Using a hot glue gun, attach flower to the top of the pen.

Step 3: Carefully wrap the pen with florist tape to create the "stem". I wrapped it once going down and then up the pen so there are two layers.

Step 4: There is no step 4! You're done! ... ok this is an optional step. If you wanted to "customize" these pens, you can hot glue the teacher's name using alphabet beads down the sides of the pens.

We used cute glass cups as flower vases, but you can easily use an actual flower pot or mug. Stuff it with whatever you like ... chocolates, candy, erasers, bath salts ... anything you think your teacher will like.

Super easy and fun ... and I only burned my thumb twice! Yay ... Grrrr!!!!