Fall Make-Up Update

It's official, fall is here! Even though the weather is still ranging from 70 degree days to chilly "where is my winter coat" mornings Fall is here. I have been itched for tall boots, scarves and vests. I am now only hoping that fall decides to stick around for as long as possible because word on the street is winter in Iowa is supposed to be as long and cold as last year or worse. Thanks for the optimistic outlook Mr. Weatherman.

A few weekends ago the Boy and I went to the Zac Brown concert at Wrigley Field. It was his 30th Birthday treat, and we had a blast. If you ever have the chance to see Zac Brown take the opportunity. Him and his band were fantastic.

A trip to Chicago also meant that I was definitely going to find a way to get to the MAC store. So while the Boy watched his Iowa Hawkeyes play Iowa State I grabbed a cab and headed downtown. And within a half hour this is what I got.

p.s. I bought this faux-leather sweater specifically for our Chicago weekend and I love it. I think I definitely be adding some more leather trimmed or accented pieces to my wardrobe this fall and winter.

Back to the make-up. I decided to go with an eye-shadow quad as one it definitely saves a few dollars, and two I love that when I am traveling I have everything I need in one convenient package.

The make-up artist gave me a great look that can easily be taken from day tonight. This quad eyeshadow is part of a limited edition collection called A Novel Romance.

But what really made my eyes pop was MAC's Fluidline. If you haven't ever used Fluidline I highly recommend it. It has way more staying power than a pencil and I find it much easy to apply than most liquid liners. The color he selected for me was called Dipdown. The blush I already had (MAC's blushes last forever) and is called Melba. 

The beauty item that I wanted to let you in on is RapidLash. I have really been wanting to get eyelash extensions. However, I haven't found anyone in NE Iowa to help make that happen. I've heard a lot about Lattise, but the potential side effect of eyelid skin darkening really makes me nervous, so I started to look for some other options and that is when I found Rapid Lash at Ulta. The reviews were pretty good so I decided to give it a shot, and I think it is working! I've been using it for about three weeks and I have noticed a big difference in the health and length of my lashes. I think my mascara goes on a lot smoother as well. What really sealed the deal was that the MAC make-up artist commented on what great long lashes I had. I don't think anyone as ever told me that! 

What makes you excited for fall? Are adding something fun to your wardrobe or make-up box? 

Peach Muffins

Dana and I windblown from looking at calves. 

Don't you love when you finally get to spend a weekend at home? The past two weekends have been full of fun trips to Texas to see my sister in law and Chicago for some cattle sales and the Zac Brown Band concert at Wrigley Field. This weekend was also packed with a trip to Illinois to drop off some cattle that we will be selling in a sale in October, an impromptu stop to look at some Hereford cattle in Wisconsin and then meeting up with my best friend for her family's Angus cattle sale. Can you see a theme here - lots of cattle sales going on right now. I told my husband that the best part about owning cattle is the friends we make and taking trips to look at their cattle.

However, after our 15 hour road trip yesterday it was really nice to wake up in our own bed this morning. I've had an itch to get some baking done, so after fences were fixed this morning the stove and oven were fired up.

First I made a batch of my corn/potato chowder soup for lunch, then it was a couple dozen of my mom's chocolate chip cookies, and finally a new recipe for peach muffins. After many requests from Facebook here is the recipe.

Crystal's Peach Muffins

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup milk (you can use 1%, 2% or whole)
1/2 cup canola/vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cups peaches - I used frozen peaches that I defrosts in the microwave and then gave a touch chop. I am sure you could use fresh or drained can peaches as well.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 425F degrees, and place liners in muffin tin. This recipe with give you a dozen standard size muffins.

In large bowl mixed flour, caking powder, salt and cinnamon, and gently stir. Set aside.

In second bowl (I use my kitchen-aid mixer for this part) whisk eggs, white and brown sugar until combined. Add milk, oil and vanilla and stir. Take the wet ingredient bowl and gently fold (folding is different than stirring, here is a video) this mixture into your dry ingredients. You do not want to over mix as it will create hard muffins. Keep folding just until the wet mixture is coated. You batter will likely be lumpy and that's ok.

Fill you muffin liners almost to the top. Bake at 425F for 5 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 375F and bake for another 14-15 minutes. To check if they are done insert a toothpick and it should come out clean.