Make up

Good Eyebrows

November 26, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood7 Comments

This is just too good to not share… While my 6 year old daughter was watching me getting ready this afternoon to go out for Thanksgiving dinner, she said, “Hmmm, your eyebrows are really good today!”
So, for Thanksgiving today, along with many other things, I am thankful for good eyebrows and sweet compliments. 😉

Delicious Recipes

Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars

November 26, 2015November 26, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood2 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving! We just finished enjoying these delicious “Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars” as part of our Thanksgiving breakfast. I highly recommend this recipe which can be found on the pillsbury website…

Ingredients

2 cans (8 oz each) Pillsbury™ refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2cup butter, melted

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F.
Unroll 1 can dough. Place in bottom of ungreased 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. Stretch to cover bottom of dish, firmly pressing perforations to seal.
In medium bowl, beat cream cheese and 1 cup of the sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Spread over dough in baking dish.
Unroll second can of dough. Carefully place on top of cream cheese layer. Pinch seams together.
Pour melted butter evenly over top. Mix remaining 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon, and sprinkle evenly over butter.
Bake about 30 minutes or until center is set. Cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Refrigerate for easy cutting. Cover and refrigerate any remaining bars.

Enjoy the holiday!

Click HERE to go to the Pilsbury website

Quote

Happy Thanksgiving

November 26, 2015November 26, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGoodLeave a comment

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday!
I have been greatly blessed and I am so grateful for so many things!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Psalm 136:1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Thanksgiving By Ralph Waldo Emerson For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends. | lookingjoligood.wordpress.com

Thanksgiving
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Beauty Subscription · Free/Good Deals

Love With Food November Box

November 23, 2015November 26, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood2 Comments

Snack smart. Do good! Love Food!

As you know, I love God, I love my family, and I LOVE food. So, that being said, it is only natural for me to order a box called “Love with Food“.

What is “Love With Food” you ask? It “helps you discover new organic or all-natural snacks delivered to your door every month. Our subscription membership starts as low as $7.99/month. Every month, Love With Food members will receive a curated box of unique, hard-to-find tasty snacks which varies based on seasonal themes.”

If you’d like to try it out for yourself, I have a referral code you can use to get your first box for 40% off. That’s a great deal! Here is the link with the code http://lovewithfood.com/invite?m=e&ref=2ReL

For every box sold, they donate a meal to several food banks such as the Feeding America Network and Share Our Strength – No Kid Hungry. Help end child hunger one meal at a time! Click Here to LEARN MORE

Here is what I got in my box this month…

Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle It is like eating the best crispy part of the brownie.

Sesame Tocchetti

Turbinado Natural Cane Sugar Assortment

Tea Sachet Assortment (2 Sachet per box)

Milk Chocolate Squares

Honey Graham Sticks

Raspberry TruffleCremes in Milk Chocolate No. 30

Biscoff by Lotus Bakeries These cookies are soooo good!

Dark Chocolate Squares

Dirty Sweet Potato Chips-oh my goodness, these were so good! I love sweet potatoes!

Quote

Gratitude

November 22, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGoodImageLeave a comment

Be Grateful | Thanksgiving quote | lookingjoligood.wordpress.com

Make up

Hooded Eyes Makeup Do’s and Don’ts by Sona Gasparian

November 21, 2015November 21, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood1 Comment

I have slightly hooded eyes, I think it would actually be called a heavy fold. My eye shape is actually very similar to hers. Due to this I can’t just do any type of makeup look that I want. Certain strategies help to make a “hooded eye” look more open and awake.

I love Sona Gasparian‘s videos. If you have never watched her before I definitely recommend you check her out! This video about Hooded Eyes Makeup Do’s and Don’ts is such a great tutorial! What a huge difference in the way her eyes look!

Flab to FAB · Health/ Fitness

Working Out for Beginners

November 20, 2015November 16, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood4 Comments

If you are new to exercising and working out, here are some tips and tricks for you (some that I have learned the hard way so that you don’t have to.)

You will be sore! Don’t be afraid of the soreness, use it as motivation to keep going! Even if you are sore, you will feel better after you exercise. You will learn to hate it and love it all at the same time. Don’t let soreness prevent you from working out.
Don’t give up if you don’t see major results after the first workout 😉 You didn’t put the weight on in one day, you won’t take it all off in one day (or one week…or month) It takes consistent daily work
Choosing a healthy lifestyle is just as much mental as it is physical. You have to make a choice every day to keep going.
Form is everything! If you are new to exercising proper form may feel a bit awkward, get a mirror and watch your form. If you are doing a movement with improper form (especially if you are using weights) you are more likely to injure yourself. Injuries are not fun!
Always warm up! It is not worth the time you save to skip warming up. Your muscles will thank you and you will be less likely to injure yourself if you are properly warmed up.
Always stretch!!! Just like with warming up, it is not worth the time you save to skip stretching. Your muscles will thank you and you will be less likely to injure yourself if you are properly stretched! Do NOT skip stretching.
Breath!!!! Don’t hold your breath! Sometimes when things are hard we tend to hold our breath. Don’t do that! Proper breathing helps with core stability, plus you need to breath to prevent yourself from passing out. I always remember proper breathing by inhale on the easy part, exhale when difficult or blow out against gravity. So when doing crunches, exhale on the crunch up inhale on the way down. Push ups: exhale when pushing up, inhale on the way down. Lifting weights (even 3 or 5 lbs) exhale when lifting the weight inhale when lowering
Don’t overestimate your exercise’s impact while underestimating your caloric intake
It is not about being better than someone else, it is about being better than you were yesterday!
You CANNOT spot reduce fat! You can work specific areas and muscles, but the only way to get rid of fat in a “problem area” is to lose weight all over your entire body. You may carry more weight in your midsection, or have wider shoulders, or like me you might have chubby knees and cankles (I seriously HATE my cankles!).
While you can get in better shape, you cannot change your overall body shape. If you are pear shaped you will just be a smaller pear. (see number 8) You can exercise all day every day and you will still have your original body shape.
Be accountable to someone. Studies show that people who are accountable to someone, not only have more success with weight loss , but also are more successful at keeping the weight off long term.

I hope that you find these tips to be helpful! Enjoy your workouts, exercise is fun!

Disclaimer: While I am not a professional or a personal fitness trainer, I have been exercising for years.

Delicious Recipes

Sweet Potato Casserole

November 19, 2015November 16, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood3 Comments

I look forward to Thanksgiving every year for one reason. It is not the turkey or the mashed potatoes. It isn’t even the pies and desserts, although those are great too. The reason I look forward to Thanksgiving is this awesome Sweet Potato Casserole! It is so delicious!!! We had a Thanksgiving feast this past Sunday with a group of our friends. I made this dish to share with everyone and it was a crowd pleaser!

Ingredients

4 cups sweet potato, cubed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Put sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Cook over medium high heat until tender; drain and mash. (or use canned yams and skip this step all together.)
In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, white sugar, eggs, cinnamon, salt, butter, milk and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9×13 inch baking dish.
In medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture.
Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.

Health/ Fitness

Essential Oils

November 18, 2015November 18, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood2 Comments

Unless you have been living under a rock :-), (or maybe you don’t have a Facebook or Pinterest account), I am sure you have heard one thing or another about essential oils. I have been using essential oils for about 2 years now. Don’t stop reading, I am NOT a Youngliving or Doterra sales rep, and I am not going to try to get anyone to buy something from me. I just love using essential oils. There are so many natural benefits to using these oils! As you may know, I am an RN, I give modern medicine on a daily basis. I believe in modern medication, but I also believe that essential oils are beneficial as well.

You may have heard the term essential oils, but might still be wondering what are essential oils?Well if you were to google “what are essential oils?” the first answer you would get would be “a natural oil typically obtained by distillation and having the characteristic fragrance of the plant or other source from which it is extracted.” Basically that means an oil that comes from a plant or other natural source.

I like to get a lot of my oils from Plant Therapy, but I have also used some YoungLiving and Now oils. Some of my most favorite oils to use are Lemon, Peppermint, and Lavender oil. I like to combine the three of them for an allergy fighting trio. Pinterest has many different ideas on how you can use essential oils. (Click HERE to follow my Essential Oils board)

Generally, essential oils are either inhaled through the use of a diffuser or applied topically. I have a GreenAir SpaVapor diffuser that I bought on sale from Amazon for $25. Every night, I diffuse essential oils for respiratory relief in my daughter’s room, and I really feel as if this helps with her asthma.

If you are going to be applying your oil topically, you need to cut it with a carrier oil. A carrier oil is a vegetable oil such as coconut oil, olive oil, my favorite grapeseed oil. These oils can be used to dilute essential oils. A 2% essential oil dilution is generally considered safe for topical application of essential oils on adults. To make a 2% dilution add 12 drops of essential oil to each fl. ounce (30 ml) of carrier oil. (Usually 600 drops of essential oil equals 30ml or 1 fl. ounce, so 2% is 12 drops) Some oils are more potent than others, but a 2% dilution is the usual recommendation. I’ll be honest, sometimes when diluting my oils, if I am familiar with my body’s reaction to the oil, I put a lot more than 12 drops when I am diluting them. But if you are new or still getting used to essential oils, less is more until you know what works for you. Also, if I am mixing more than one oil together, I personally do 12 drops of each oil to one fl oz total. I don’t add an extra fl oz of carrier for each oil, some may, but I personally usually don’t.

If you choose to ingest essential oils, before doing so, be absolutely sure that they are food grade oils. Personally, I would never ingest any essential oils, but that is my choice due to research that I have done.

Check out Using Essential Oils Safely. Essential oils are awesome when used properly, but like a lot of things, can be toxic when overused or used improperly. Also, if you have a lot of questions, Youngliving’s website has a great Q&A section!

**There are no affiliate links in this post. This is all my own opinion. I am not getting paid for sharing any of this information!**

Make up

Makeup Starter Kit

November 17, 2015November 15, 2015 LauraJoli LookingJoliGood1 Comment

If you are new to make up and are looking for some great products to get to a great start. Here is a list of some products that I think work well and are affordable for a beginner!