Current Autumn Favorites | Video

Hello!

I am back with a video and a happier post. I really liked how this video turned out and that my camera was in focus and the lighting was good. At the beginning of this video, I say that I had to re-film this video due to being out of focus and so now I am happy about the video. Anyways, I hope that you guys enjoy the video and let me know what your current favorites are in the comments below!!

Lots of Love.

M. 

Austin Vlog | Video

Okay, so I am back again with another video, a vlog really. This vlog was from like 2 weekends ago when I went to Austin to celebrate my cousin's bachelorette party. I wish I had vlogged alittle bit more but I was way too caught up in the fun. But I put together what I did vlog, so I hope that you enjoy it!

Let's Catch Up! | VIDEOS

Hello Beauties! So I know I haven't posted in awhile and I miss posting on here. But life, you know? Anyways since the last time I was on here I have uploaded a couple of videos so I thought I would just put them all on one post so that you can see them all on one and not have to click to different posts. So lets go!

The first is a "tennis vlog". I played tennis with my friend, Marlon and it was a lot of fun. I think we just talked most of the time but it was super fun anyways:

So the second one is just a little day vlog where I took you guys to school and told you all about my test problem and what not! So here is that one:

And the most recent one is this tutorial(don't like using that word) on how I do my winged liner. I hope that you find it helpful and that you just like the video overall.

SUBSCRIBE HERE!! :)

And that is it! There will be a new video(or two) within the next couple of days so be on the look out for that!! 

Going out/Alter Ego Look Video

I haven't uploaded a video in ages, and this time I really have no excuse. I just upload, stop, and upload again and it shouldn't be like that. Anyways, the video that I recently uploaded is a little crazy/fun. I did my alter ego/going out look. My friends and I say that when I go out I have this crazy alter ego named Mariah. It is really just a joke, but I wanted to make a video out of it. So here is what "Mariah" would look like is she really did exist :)

Make sure to subscribe!

Anxiety & Depression

I feel like now a days, its quite common to have either anxiety or depression, or both. Dealing with it is no easy task especially for me. Recently it hasn't just been my crazy bad anxiety, but also depression. A lot of people as "What are you depressed about?", but do we really need a reason? How do you tell people how you feel when you don't really know how to explain it or not really sure how it is that you feel. For me it's just a bunch of little things. Overthinking things is one of the biggest issues for me. My brain likes to take everything and over analyze even the littlest of things. It's really annoying, but I can't seem to help it.  

The one I struggle with the most would have to be anxiety. My anxiety takes over and controlling it is difficult. Though I am learning to control it, it takes time and so is finding the way to avoid having anxiety. To avoid anxiety, I like to do things that make me happy and keep me calm and surrounding myself with good people also helps. I try to avoid the situations that make me anxious, but if I can't I give myself a little talk to remind myself that everything will be okay. One of the biggest things is airplanes. Airplanes give me the worst anxiety ever. My heart starts pounding, my stomach hurts, and I just get really nervous especially if there is too much turbulence. The crazy thoughts start pouring in, and I just want to cry. But, over the past few months, I have been traveling a little bit more than I usually do, and I am starting to learn to control it. Reminding myself that everything will be okay, and that its normal that it moves. I don't why these crazy thoughts come into my head, but dealing with it is something that I know I have to work on. 

Depression is a whole different story. Because I tend to overthink things, it makes everything worse. 

I feel alone, sad and angry all at once. Even though I have my family, sometimes it feels as if I have no one to talk to and that is what makes me feel alone. To be honest, I don't have many friends, and the ones I do live far away. Its hard to not really have anyone to go hang out with and get away, and even though I like being alone sometimes, I do miss going out and spending time with my friends. Blogging, designing, and making videos is my one true remedy. I can just forget about everything "bad" and loose myself in what I love to do the most. 

My advise to anyone feeling like this, try finding things that make you happy. Do more of what you love. If someone or something is making you feel anxious or depressed, remove yourself from that. You don't need that feeling to exist in your life and yes it is hard- trust me I know it is, but doing it will only benefit you. I know that for me, I still have to work on it and I am, but it will take time. Don't let your depression or anxiety win. Beating it is the ultimate goal for me. I know that I will get through it, I just can't give up, and if you feel this way you can't give up either. 

New, Healthier Me | Tips & Tricks

Hello Everyone.

So today I wanted to post about what I have been doing the past couple of weeks to stay healthy and fit. It has not been an easy journey. I can never say no to a cookie, cake or just anything sweet. But, I have told myself that if I want to feel better about myself and just feel good in my own skin that "no" was going to have to be in my vocabulary a bit more often when it came to bad foods. So I have kind of forced myself to say "yes" to working out more and "no" to unhealthy foods.

Here are the things that I have been doing to keep me motivated, eating healthy, and exercising more.

1. Counting My Calories

One of the things that has really helped me is keeping track of the calories that I consume a day. This might seem a bit weird, but it works and It is a good way to see how many calories you can have a day according to your height, weight and I think age too. To track my calories I use an app on my phone called "MyFitnessPal". This app helps me keep track of the foods I eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. It also helps me keep track of how much water I drink and I can also enter the amount of exercise I have done. This app gives you a number of calories you can intake according to your body, and will keep track of it. I love this app. I use it everyday and I really see a difference with the way I eat now. It is one thing to go an work out and then to go eat really bad things and one to work out and concentrate on what you eat.

2. Exercise

Along with changing my eating habits, I have added exercise to my daily routine. This has been even tougher for me than eating healthy because I am just naturally a lazy person. I would rather lay in bed all day than get up and go work out. But this has dramatically changed within the past couple of weeks. I have been getting up earlier than I would and heading to the gym for about an hour. First, I run a mile, once I get off the treadmill I start doing my ab work outs, then arms, and finish off doing squats. I also got P90X which I can barely do, but I try to do them. I love feeling sore because then you know you are doing the work outs correctly and that I am actually working those muscles out.

3. Staying Motivated

When working out and eating healthy, staying motivated is not an easy task. For me, I liked going to the gym a couple of days at the beginning of the week and the loosing my motivation to go to the gym towards the middle of the week. I told myself in the mornings that I would go at night after work, but then I was just too tired to work out once I got home. Now, I force myself to go. It is really difficult to get up in the morning and go to the gym, but once I do I love the feeling of accomplishment once I get home. I feel like I did something good and I start my day off feeling great about myself. That's why even thought it is a constant battle to get up in the morning and go to the gym, I have to remind myself the great feeling afterwards. So if you are like me and finding it hard to get motivated to go to the gym, don't give into it. Force yourself to go, even if it is for a little while, trust me you will feel so good after you go.

So those are some of my tips on how to stay motivated and eating right. I hope that this helped out a bit. 

If you have any tips and tricks to go to the gym, staying motivated, or eating healthy, please let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear what you have to say. 

Eyebrow Routine | Video

It has been a month or so since I have filmed a video and it felt so good to be able to sit down and film one. I absolutely love it, but editing seriously is the worse. But I did it and I am happy to share this video with you all. 

This video is all about my eyebrow routine. All the products I use and how I use them. So without giving to much away, here is my quick video on my eyebrow routine. 

Make sure to subscribe! :)

Lemon Pistachio Cheesecake Bars

I was so excited when I found this recipe and I even more so when I was able to make these bad boys.

Not only is it as delicious as it sounds, but its super simple to make and its a no bake recipe so that's just awesome. The only down side is having to wait for these to set in the fridge because I just wanted to eat them right away. So please, if you love lemon and pistachios or even if you don't; try this recipe. You are going to love these. They are sweet and the hint of lemon zest in the mix gives it the perfect kick. 

So, for this you will need:

For the Crust:

5oz of Unsalted Pistachios

1 cup of Graham Crackers

3oz of Unsalted Butter

3/4 cup of chopped toasted hazelnuts

For the Filling:

2 packs of Cream Cheese

1 cup of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Zest of 1 lemon

To Get Started:

Add the pistachios into a food processor and process them until they are a fine crumb. Once they are crushed, add the graham crackers into the processor until they graham crackers and pistachios are a fine crumb. Then add your butter into the food processor (make sure it's melted!), and blend until your mix is damp and has a sandy feel to it. 

Once that is all done, grease a pan that is either a rectangle or square to give them a bar shape at the end. Add the sandy mixture to the pan and lightly press it either with the back of a spoon or with the palm of your hand and cover the bottom of the pan and up the sides of the pan. Make sure that the bottom is completely covered and no pan is showing. Then, place the pan in the refrigerator for at least 25 minutes. 

For the Filling:

Beat the cream cheese, zest of one lemon and condensed milk until it is all smooth and well combined.

Take the pan out of the fridge, and carefully add the lemon cheesecake mix until it covers the base of the pan and it is all smooth and even throughout. Then place the pan in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or over night. 

Once they have sat in the fridge and ready to come out, its time to decorate! Now, I skipped this part but, you can do whatever you like with your lemon bars. You can add crushed pistachios at the top with the lemon zest, or do as I did, and just add the lemon zest on top for decoration. 

To cut these, I used a large kitchen knife to make a clean cut down and make them into bars!

And that's it!  Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!

Blog Tips | Add Back to Top Button

So as a new little thing that I have promised myself, I want to start posting more DIY for your blogs and just more post in general. As you guys can tell, I have COMPLETELY redesigned my blog for the millionth time, but this time I think this one is going to stay for a very long time. Anyways, lets get started on our Blog Tip!

If you scroll down on my blog, you will tell that I have a little "Back To Top" Button on the bottom right hand corner and I think it is so handy! I love it. So I wanted to share it with you guys!

FIRST STEP:

Log into your Blogger, go to Template > Edit HTML and find the code <head>. Once you found it, copy the paste I have provided right BELOW that:

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.0.0/jquery.min.js'></script>

SECOND STEP:

Then go to your Layout section > Add a Gadget > HTML/JAVASCRIPT and paste the code below into that section:

<!--Smooth Back to Top Button Start-->

<script>

jQuery(document).ready(function() {

var offset = 220;

var duration = 500;

jQuery(window).scroll(function() {

if (jQuery(this).scrollTop() > offset) {

jQuery('.back-to-top').fadeIn(duration);

} else {

jQuery('.back-to-top').fadeOut(duration);

}

});

jQuery('.back-to-top').click(function(event) {

event.preventDefault();

jQuery('html, body').animate({scrollTop: 0}, duration);

return false;

})

});

</script>

<style>

div#page {

max-width: 900px;

margin-left: auto;

margin-right: auto;

padding: 20px;

}

.back-to-top {

position: fixed;

bottom: 2em;

right: 0px;

text-decoration: none;

color: #000000;

font-size: 12px;

padding: 1em;

display: none;

}

.back-to-top:hover {

text-decoration: none;

}

</style>

<a href="#" class="back-to-top"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB3lTVRdXPz-R45XCsZKm_WI54ER4EACag-4sNTY15YmOSBR1CiI0aC4Fn7aMJSDOqX5FrhuLN18sBySXJxLp7iJdlCTXkUKkHtNwk6qWgDkgRrySYI4ev61s-X6wavqAo7HRdknaG/s1600/GENERAL+BACK.png" alt="Back to Top" / ></a>

<!--Smooth Back to Top Button End-->

And that is it! You can change the one that is already as default or place your own. Just simply create on, Upload it to a post on Blogger, Turn the "Compose" at the top left hand corner to HTML and copy the image where its starts "http:example" and replace it in the code! Make sure to ONLY replace that. Changing anything else can ruin the code!

Hope that you all found this helpful and that is works!

AU REVOUIR for now!!

Red Velvet Swirl Brownies

 I thought it would be cool to post something a bit different from the usual, so here it is! Red Velvet Swirl Brownies with roasted walnuts. I am obsessed with red velvet anything. Cake, cookies, cupcakes, you name it but I had never tried red velvet brownies so when I came across this recipe I knew i just had to try it. I was also excited to see that this brownie recipe also had a layer of cream cheese that went on the top of them and they turned out delicious! So I wanted to share this recipe with you all and hope that you enjoy them!

 Brownie Layer 

1 Stick of Unsalted Butter

1 cup of Sugar

1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

1/4 cup Cocoa Powder

Pinch of Salt

1 Tbsp Red Food Coloring

1 tsp Vinegar

2 Eggs

3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour

1/4 Toasted Walnuts

Cream Cheese Layer

8oz softened Cream Cheese

1/4 cup Sugar

1 egg

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

 Alrighty, so here is what you need to do.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter your baking pan really well too!

For the Brownie Layer: Melt the butter in a saucepan or in the microwave until completely melted.  Remove the butter to a large bowl and add the sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt, food coloring, and vinegar mixing between additions. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and stir it into the cocoa mix. Fold in the flour until lightly combined. Stir in the walnuts and pour the batter into your prepared baking pan, saving 1/4 cup of the batter to spread over the top later.

Cream Cheese layer: Blend together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Gently spread the cream cheese layer on top of the brownie batter in the pan. Dollop the remaining brownie batter over the cream cheese layer. Using a skewer or the tip of a knife, drag the tip through the cream cheese mixture to create a swirl pattern. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before cutting.

And that should be it!! To find a video about this recipe CLICK HERE!!

My Morphe Palettes

I feel like its not just me that is currently with everything Morphe. Morphe brushes, concealers, and of course their palettes. Over the past couple of months, I have been obsessing over their palettes and to be honest, they are the only eyeshadows that I currently use. I have abandoned all of my other palettes for these. Not only are they cheap, but the quality of the product is really awesome. There is seriously nothing better than a great product for a great price.  I could go over how amazing all of these different palettes are, but that would take ages and it would be a really long post. 

The thing is, all Morphe palettes are great. Their shimmer shadows and matte shadows just work amazingly. No doubt about it. They are really pigmented and really easy to blend. If you haven't tried out any of these palettes, I really recommend that you do. Here are the Morphe palettes that I currently own but of course, I plan to own more very soon. 

PS: My favorite one (and maybe everyone else's) is the 35O Palette. 

Links to where you can get these palettes are below each image! :)

Their newest one, the 35F Palette. 

 Their 35W Palette 

35E Palette, which I cant find on the site..

The 35O Palette

New at LovelyParis

You may or may not know that I have a blog design shop. It has been a while since I have really done anything with the shop itself. I do a lot of blog templates, extras and other things for my customers over on Etsy, but I haven't been giving my shop the best attention. I am still making some changes and adding more things which I will get into in a second. Anyways, the past couple of days I have been doing just that. Changing the look and adding more things on my website which I am really excited about! Anyways, Lets talk about the changes!

NEW LOOK

So the first change that I made was the look of the site! The old look wasn't too bad, but I felt like it was missing a couple of things. It was too plain and the slider on the main page was giving me problems when the page would load. It would take a while to show up and the quality of it was bad. I only had a couple of tabs and I also didn't like the quality of the site so it was time to give it a change!

NEW FEATURE | THE BLOGGER PACKAGE

Now! Now, I have a couple more buttons and options to click on. I created two new pages that explain Blog Installation and support for new bloggers seeking help with creating their blog. If you are a new blogger or know of someone who wants to start a blog, we now offer that type of help! The details are all on the new page and you can check that out HERE!

NEW PAGE | TEMPLATE INSTALLATION

The most asked question or the thing that customers need the most help on is Installing things onto their blog. Whether it be installing the template, making the header, the welcome image, ect. It is the one thing that most people have trouble with, and from the beginning I have offered FREE Tech support. I have never minded doing free technical support because I understand that what I find easy might not be for others and sometimes its better to just do it instead of explaining somethings that may not make any sense at all. But, I added a couple of new rules to this also. I will be limiting the days I offer tech support. For more information, you can click HERE!

NEW PAGE | SUPPORT

This is one of the pages that I have had up for a while now, but haven't really added anything new than just what has been on there since I made the page. This page only includes 2 posts that offer support for customers that had purchased designs and need help with installing gadgets on their blog. Now, I will add extra support for each individual template. Templates usually have different instructions to follow and I want to be able to provide assistance on how and where to install or put everything so I will be laying all of that out on the support page. 

The other thing that is new on this page is the password needed for access. Before, anyone could just come on the page and look at all the support that I had on my page, but now it is exclusive to my customers only. I feel like if you purchased a design from LovelyParis, that you should be offered this featured exclusively. Customers will have the password that will open the file to their purchased template only that includes all of the instructions needed to put their template together properly. This feature is still on the works so It will take a while to put all of the information together, but I cannot wait to make it live! 

So those are the new and exciting things that are on lovelyparisdesigns and I cannot wait for you all to see the final result when everything is ready to go. You can still go on the site and shop around or go to our store HERE!

Blog Tips | Removing Sidebar From Pages

I had posted this same post a while back, but I wanted to re-publish it since it just go lost in the other millions of other posts I have done.

Today I am going to show you guys how to remove your sidebar from your Pages. So if your on your blog and click on your pages they will only have your content for that page and thats it. No sidebar to make it look like another post( Thats what I felt they looked liked).

My blog actually has this code in place, so if you click on any of the pages, there will be no sidebar and the content on the pages is centered. ( Go click any page to see what it looks like). 

1. Go Dashboard > Design > Edit HTML.
2. Back Up Your Template!!
3. Find this code in your template HTML:

 <body> - If you are using Layout Templates  

                                       OR

 <body expr:class='&quot;loading&quot; + data:blog.mobileClass'> - if you are using Designer template.

     4.  Once you find that, copy the code below right AFTER/BELOW the code you found in Step 3:

<!-- PAGES CODE STARTS HERE-->
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;static_page&quot;'>
<style>
.blog-pager, .footer, .post-footer, .feed-links, .sidebar { display:none !important;}
#main-wrapper {width: 95%; float:none; margin: 0 auto !important;}

.main-inner .columns {width: 100%;padding-left:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;}
</style></b:if>
<!-- PAGES CODE ENDS HERE -->

5. Save it, and test it out! 

Note: If it doesn't look well try removing this part of the code:

.main-inner .columns {width: 100%;padding-left:0 !important;padding-right:0 !important;}

That part of the code is only if you are using a Designer Template. (Mine has that bit of code attached to it still). 

Blog Tips | Putting Two Images Next to Eachother

There are times where on your blog posts or blog pages, you might want to put two pictures next to each other, but the template or Blogger just won't let you. This is something that I have always struggled with especially on my Design website, where I want to put the Template pictures next to each other, but really couldn't. Until Now!!

So, to put two pictures next to each other (like you see in the picture above), all you need to do is follow the instructions below! Let's Go!

1. Copy and Paste the code below in your blog post or blog page:
<table><tbody>
<tr><td>PICTURE 1
</td><td>PICTURE 2
</td></tr></tbody></table>
2. Copy your images URL and paste them where it says PICTURE 1 for one image URL and the other image URL goes into the PICTURE 2 slot. Make sure to replace the text that says PICTURE.

Your image URL can be found by uploading your image on the post page, and turning your post into HTML (Top left hand corner, next to Compose on Blogger). Copy the entire <img border="0".../> code.

3. Make sure to do that for both images! Save your post or page, and you should see your images next to each other!!


Hope you found this post helpful! Let me know if you would like to see more post like this. More Blogger Tips. 

FOR MORE BLOG TIPS, TYPE IN "BLOG TIPS" IN THE SEARCH BOX AT THE TOP!

Current Make Up Favorites

 So the past couple of weeks, I have bought these few things that have become some of my favorite make up products that I currently own. I wanted to share with you all what those where. I have left links at the end of each picture to find the products!

The first ones are this Morphe travel kit brushes. I love these. Not only do they work great, but they are small and come in a case so you can take them with you anywhere. I don't really travel that much, but I really like how they are not too big and i can honestly say that I use them everyday. Morphe, if you didn't know already, has amazing products for even better prices, and I am not gonna like I though that these where not going to be as good as their other brushes because they are travel size, but they work amazing. 

 The ones that I use the most are the contour brush which is the one at the bottom of the above picture, the powder brush which I use for blush, and the concealer brush. The other ones I use most when I am doing my eyeshadow, which I know only do on special occasions.
You can find this Morphe Brushes Travel Kit, HERE!

 The next one is this Benefit "They're Real" Mascara. This mascara is so amazing. I have tried so many mascaras from cheap drug store ones to expensive ones like this one many times, and I always come back to this one and the Roller Lash one they have too. This is such an awesome formula and truly gives your lashes that volume and length. If you are looking for a cheaper alternative, try the Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara. Find this mascara, HERE!

 This next product is my ride or die. My one and only. My favorite product ever pretty much. The Anastasia BeverlyHill Dipbrow Pomade. Since finding this product about a year or two ago, I have never gone to anything else for my eyebrows. I have tried her pencils, but those don't last as long as the pomade does. I can honestly tell you that this pomade when used moderately, will last you about a 8-9 months or more. When it is running low, the product gets just a little bit dry, but if you add a bit of contact solution it will work great until the very last drop of product. I highly recommend this product if you want your eyebrows to look amazing 24/7. Find the Pomade, HERE!


These other Anastasia products are the first liquid lipsticks of hers that I have bought and I am already obsessed with them. These two that I got are Stripped and Ashton. I am in love with these colors. The more nude one, which is Stripped is a perfect everyday nude and Ashton, which has a brown hint to is I like to wear to go out. I have gotten so many compliments with the lipstick on. It looks amazing on and they last all day. Beware, liquid lipsticks are very dry. That is just the way they are but nothing to horrible. Great products over all. Find them HERE!

 Last but not least is the new Morphe 35F Palette. I love the colors in this palette so much. It is mostly shimmer shades and 7 matte shades. This palette is one of my 5 Morphe Palettes and seriously, I haven't been using anything since I bought my first palette because they are just that amazing. Not only is the product great, but it is a great price too! That's why I think everyone loves Morphe so much. Great products for Great Prices. As you can tell from the picture above of the palette, I haven't had too much time to actually play around with it, but I am looking forward to creating new looks with this palette! You can find the palette, HERE!

Fast and Easy Make up and Hair

Hello! I feel like I haven't posted in years, and its probably because I haven't ! I have left my blog in abandonment. Anyways, for this weeks video, I wanted to do a fast and easy hair and make up look. I love this hairstyle and it is one of my favorites. Its fast and simple and its super cute. The make up was a fast everyday eye look that I also really enjoy. I hope that you enjoy the video and make sure to subscribe to my channel!! :)

Channel Trailer | Video

Today was a really chill day. Just one of those lazy Saturdays where I just want to lay in bed and do nothing. Even though I laid in bed most of the day, I did do something, and I think that little something turned out pretty cool!

Milani Lipstick Collection | Video

So a couple of days ago, I filmed a little video telling you all about my Milani Lipstick collection and did a little review on them.

Puerto Rico Vlog and Pics

Hello Loves! Long time no see. 

This past week I decided to just get away for a little while. Just to clear my head, de-stress, and relax. And what better place to do that at than back home in Puerto Rico. My cousin, who is like my sister is having a baby and was throwing a gender reveal party, so I went and surprised her. It was so awesome. She seriously wasn't expecting it and I was so excited to be able to be there and find out what baby was going to be! I seriously had such an amazing 5 days and they were over way too fast. Anyways, I will leave you with my little vlog and some pictures. I hope that you like the vlog, and if you haven't visited Puerto Rico, please do. You don't need a passport to go there and it uses American Currency so do it!! :)

My First Eyelash Extensions

A couple of weeks ago, for my birthday I went and got my eyelashes done at my local nail salon.

Olive Glam Look | Video

Now that I am back from being away for a little while, I wanted to bring you guys one of my favorite looks.

New Template | Penelope

I know, I have been away for the longest time ever. Away from YouTube and here which sucks, but I just needed sometime away. Like a little vacation, you know?