Skincare: St Ives Green Tea Scrub

When I saw this at the store I immediately snatched it up. I love anything that's green tea: green tea ice cream, green tea pocky, green tea body wash, anything at all. I love drinking green teas so long as they're loose leaf. I'm spoiled when it come to good tea. Anyway, I picked this up, and while it does not smell like green tea, it does contain the extract as an ingredient. It also contains olive leaf extract and jojoba oil. One of the key ingredients in this product is Salicylic acid for the treatment of acne. Green tea is high in antioxidants and helps to reduce redness. The exfoliate is this is actually sand which I would not have guessed. It's gentle and leaves my skin feeling smooth and refreshed!

This product retails for $5.99 for 4.5oz/133ml

♥ ♥ ♥
Lotus

asoftblackstar Etsy Store Black Friday Sale

Get 20% off your order at asoftblackstar.etsy.com on Black Friday. Use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY2010 at checkout. Place the code on the right hand side in the coupon code box and voilà! You'll save 20%!

♥ ♥ ♥
Lotus

Handmade Holiday Decorations

Etsy treasury

This year, I've decided to put some real effort into holiday decorations. I'm sticking to traditional colors and making lots of my own ornaments. Etsy is a great resource for handmade Christmas decor. Polymer clay, bits of wood, sequins, pine cones, beads, buttons, ribbons, felt, bells, and paint will be everywhere in my kitchen. Like an explosion. I can't wait!
  
♥ ♥ ♥

Sweet Tooth: Tea and Shortbread

Shortbread is ridiculously easy to make and so delicious to have with a cup of hot black tea. This simple recipe was my great grandmother's:

Scottish Shortbread
Preheat oven to 350˚
1/2 C sugar
2 1/2 C plain flour
2 sticks butter, softened 

Add sugar to the softened butter and mix. Then add flour and knead with hand until all is absorbed. Turn onto a cookie sheet. You can cut these out first or bake in one piece. Bake approx. 25 minutes or until lightly golden. Cut while still warm.

The topping for these is one I whipped together without a recipe using a double-boiler. It's semi-sweet chocolate chips, cream, vanillla extract, and sugar. I couldn't wait for them to cool and set before I had one! This was my fifth cup of tea for the day. I drink a lot of tea. This one is a loose leaf vanilla black tea.

A note about the cup and saucer: These belonged to my grandmother, who was not a smoker. It's a set of four cups, four saucers, one cake platter, one serving spatula, and four small matching ash trays! I love this set. Imagine having a couple of your lady friends over for cake, tea, and poker! Or mahjong... and maybe some liquor.

♥ ♥ ♥
Lotus

Sweet Tooth: Baked Goods from Etsy

After a day of sewing like mad for my Etsy shop, I decided it was time for something sweet. I usually have sweets in the house, but I wanted something warm from the oven. I had actually been perusing Etsy for candies and sweets to buy for Christmas...

Belgian Dark Chocolate Caramel Bars by HaveItConfections.etsy.com

Mini Bite Size Pies by WithLoveLily.etsy.com

Pure Vermont Maple Candy by MansfieldMaple.etsy.com

♥ ♥ ♥
Lotus

MAC Nail Polish collection

Since I was placing an order from MAC anyway, I went ahead and added some more nail polishes to my collection. MAC is more expensive than my other polishes, so I don't have nearly as many. These are all of my MAC nail polishes. I picked up several of the newest polishes from the MAC Nail Trend F/W 2010 Collection. I'm hoping to swatch and review these soon. I picked up Concubine, Ming Blue, Jade Dragon, and Rain of Flowers.

♥ ♥ ♥
Lotus

Halloween Catrina Makeup

I had the idea sometime last year that I wanted to be a Mexican catrina for Halloween. All I needed was the makeup and a beautiful dress. I bought five colors from the MAC acrylics line. I figured I didn't need to buy the secondary colors because I'm comfortable creating my own colors, though they are pretty. Unfortunately, I didn't allow enough time for my makeup application. I was planning on painting flowers around my eye sockets and on my chin like Sylvia Ji's Catrina paintings. Oh well. It still came out nicely. It didn't budge all night, and I sufficiently creeped my friends out. My dress was a last minute purchase from a vintage clothing store. It's a Saks Fifth Avenue dress, probably from the 1970s. I got it for a song.

♥ ♥ ♥
Lotus