This party is being held in celebration of a pair of our friends getting engaged: the groom is one of Mr. Darcy's best friends, and the bride is a dear friend of mine. The ladies will be inside our hosts' actual house, enjoying dessert crêpes, wine, and cheese, while the gents will be outside in the offset office-at-home building that they have dubbed their man-cave, playing poker and most likely making a few pizzas disappear, if I know them well at all...it's looking to be a fun evening.
I love throwing parties. My parents have always put on the most wonderful get-togethers in their home, and I've always loved the opportunity to try and follow their lead myself. From thinking up a theme to choosing the perfect outfit, from cooking the food to putting together the decorations, it's a creative process that really has a thrill for me. Recently, I was able to play decorator for a dinner for the ladies at my church that was held in my parents' home. Mom made a few pretty country-chic garlands and Mr. Darcy provided me with a whopping bunch of flowers to arrange...and these are some photos of the results. (We went with a winter-white color scheme...)
(Mom's mantelpiece garland and my candles arrangement.)
(My favorite picture of the bunch.)
(The obligatory shoe photo featuring--clockwise from the left--
Jenn's red heels, Micah's champagne flats, and my red peeptoe wedges.)
And, an exciting development for me--I get to take on the responsibility of decorating of another ladies get-together at church at the beginning of March! So far, I've been drawing my inspirations from Bath and Body Works Country Chic fragrance and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. How do those two elements work together and how it will all look? That is for another post. For now, since I've shared the photos that the title of this entry mentioned, let us move on to the other half of the title: mascara!
Like many women, I have tried an enormously varied range of mascaras in search of the One Mascara to Rule Them All. (Please forgive the Lord of the Rings pun.) Higher-end cosmetics lines such as Dior and Lancôme have certainly been among my favorites...especially Dior. But I have also found a few drugstore varieties of mascara that have worked quite well for me too. Recently, I returned to using a
mascara that I had tried before in the past--and wouldn't you know, I fell in love with it all over again!
(Photo source: http://thekarin.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/loreal-does-it-again/loreal-double-extend-mascara/)
L'Oreal's Double Extend Beauty Tubes mascara is a two-part formula that makes my lashes look like the long, perfectly-separated lashes that you might see on a doll. The first coat is a white primer-esque formula; if you apply it and let it dry completely, add another coat, and then let that dry completely before you apply the top coat of the actual mascara, it works amazingly well to extend the length of your lashes. The mascara itself is a nice, defined shade of black as well.
This mascara doesn't do much for making my eyelashes look thicker or more voluminous, but adding volume to the lashes isn't what it is really intended to do, after all. It is purely a lengthening mascara, and it does its job quite well. I like that the formula not only makes my lashes look longer, but that it also is clump-resistant...however, again, you absolutely must let each coat dry completely before adding another coat, or the mascara will inevitably clump...not fun.
Oh, and another bonus point for this mascara? It removes with great ease when you apply warm water to your lashes--otherwise, it will virtually not budge an inch all day. Love that!
Now, I'm off to put myself together and go make some crêpes, and help throw an engagement party!
À bientôt!
Cait
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