Bronwyyn
Member Since: March 9, 2016Reviews
Exsanguinate - A Vampire Urban Fantasy Series (World of Blood Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
Warning: This is a book that I sacrificed sleep to stay up reading. As a mom of four children, including a nursing infant, "stayed up all night reading because I couldn't put it down" is the highest rating I can give a book. If you also have an... +
Warning: This is a book that I sacrificed sleep to stay up reading. As a mom of four children, including a nursing infant, "stayed up all night reading because I couldn't put it down" is the highest rating I can give a book. If you also have an addiction to well-written, fast-paced, highly entertaining books, you may want to start this one first thing in the morning so you don't lose *too* much sleep when you find yourself unable to put it down when bedtime rolls around.
Another warning: This is the first book in a series. When you read Exsanguinate, you're going to want to read the next book in the series, that's pretty much a guarantee. I hope you have more patience than I do, though, because the next book hasn't been published yet. So the good news is that this amazing story keeps going; the bad news is, you've gotta wait to get your hands on it.
Cheyenne O'Cuinn is the girl-next-door - if the girl-next-door is a role-playing game-developing wiz. Cheyenne is a sweet girl who's totally devoted to her dog, her two sisters, her online boyfriend, and her job as the lead developer for ExsanguiNation, an online role-playing world reminiscent of Second Life. Cheyenne and her two sisters are strong and realistically portrayed- each girl has her own quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. These are definitely not cardboard cut-out female characters!
One of the features of this book that I really enjoyed were the links to the secret bonus content - it's like when you get a DVD of a movie you really like and can access the deleted scenes that were cut from the final film. You can read and understand the book without them, but the fangirl in me squeed with delight when I realized there were extra surprise goodies to be had that gave me more story to read.
I got this book (Kindle version) for free during a promotional event, and I LOVED this book - the characterizations were spot-on, I cared about what happened to each of them (even the bad guys, in the sense that I was interested to know how Cheyenne and her pals were going to make them pay for their misdeeds). The storyline is intriguing, with lots of thrills and chills and laughs and love. As I mentioned, I literally stayed up all night reading this book, because just when you think you're reaching a part where you can set the book aside for a few hours, the author throws another curveball at you. The ending does leave you hanging a bit - the book ends on an amazing cliffhanger, ensuring that I'm going to be first in line to pick up World of Blood #2 when it's released!
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SwaddleMe By Your Side Sleeper
I'd originally planned to purchase a larger co-sleeper bassinet – the kind on wheels where you roll it up next to your bed. I'm exclusively breastfeeding my one-month-old son, and the idea of not having to get up and walk to the crib a hundred... +
I'd originally planned to purchase a larger co-sleeper bassinet – the kind on wheels where you roll it up next to your bed. I'm exclusively breastfeeding my one-month-old son, and the idea of not having to get up and walk to the crib a hundred times a night sounded great! But at $200-$250, that was out of my price range, especially for a product that's only used for a couple of months. And then I discovered the existence of this type of sleeper (a bed basket, as my husband calls it). And I really, really love it, probably more than I would have liked the other, more expensive kind. I think it's more convenient than the wheeled kind, since it can be placed anywhere on the bed. So if I want to sleep on my other side, I can just swap places with the baby basket and still have my little guy right next to me, instead of turning my back on his cosleeper. The sides are mesh so air circulates easily and the baby and I can see each other when he's in it (which means less middle-of-the-night fussing for him, and more sleep for me!)
Set up (and fold-up) is really simple - it's just a metal bar frame that you snap in place and then tuck the pad into the bottom. (It does fold back up for storage/travel also). The bottom is flexible, not sturdy like the bottom of a play yard, so you do need to make sure it's on a flat surface (not on top of blankets or pillows or anything). I do wish that the sides folded down – the middle section of the sleeper on both sides is mesh with a "ribbon" style top hem (the metal frame doesn't go all the way around the top), so it seems like it would be relatively easy to have those sections fold down and then secure back up with snaps. But other than that, I've found this to be a great product that keeps my son both close and safe – well worth buying!
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Aesthetica Cosmetics Brow Contour Kit
Confession time: I'll be 40 this year, and I've never contoured my eyebrows (or anything else, for that matter). I had NO IDEA how to do it. My eyebrow routine is to pluck the strays when they show up and call it good. But I do like the way it looks... +
Confession time: I'll be 40 this year, and I've never contoured my eyebrows (or anything else, for that matter). I had NO IDEA how to do it. My eyebrow routine is to pluck the strays when they show up and call it good. But I do like the way it looks on other women when they've contoured their eyebrows really well – when I saw some before & after pictures, I was surprised at how much difference it can make! And this kit from Aesthetica looked like it might be simple enough to use for even someone with zero experience with eyebrow contouring, so I decided to give it a try.
This kit comes with an instructional booklet, an eyebrow "blueprint," a bunch of eyebrow stencils of varying shapes and thicknesses, six different shades of eyebrow powder (mix and match), a brush/comb, miniature tweezers, eyebrow wax, and highlighter – all in a mirrored compact. I read the instructions, watched the tutorial video on their website (there's a link to it on the instruction booklet, but note that when you go to look at the tutorial, the URL is a .me address, not a .com), took a deep breath, and started contouring.
Step one is to find the template that most closely matches your natural brow shape, and then use the powder(s) that match your natural brow color to define and fill your brows in. This is when it really hit home for me that I have two distinctly differently shaped eyebrows, but I made it work. After that, you tweeze away the hairs outside of the stenciled/filled areas. I chose not to fully tweeze my eyebrows into shape – I have five sons (and the youngest is just two months old), I know I don't have the time or inclination to keep up with that level of maintenance right now. So I just tweezed away the random stray hairs that were way outside of my natural eyebrow shape. I also found it easier to use my own full-size tweezers to do this. The included tweezers would probably work in a pinch, but they're significantly shorter than standard tweezers and I found them difficult to use for that reason. So after stenciling and shaping, you use the wax to set your eyebrows, and finally use the highlighter under your brows to finish off your look.
Overall, I found this kit pretty simple to use – it's going to take me some practice to get good at it, but I feel like I got "acceptable for going out in public" results with my very first trial run. (And remember, this is the first time I've ever tried to contour my eyebrows). I think if I were willing to take the plunge and tweeze my eyebrows into thinner matching arches that I'd be even happier with the results. The six shades of powder and five stencil shapes mean this kit should work for just about anybody (even if you're not willing to tweeze your eyebrows into utter submission). I'm adding in before & after pictures of my first attempt at using this kit to my review – I'm not wearing any other makeup in these pictures, I didn't even use primer or foundation first since it was a practice run. So this is the results I achieved my first time using this kit without having ever contoured (or even filled) my eyebrows before.
I received this product at a discount in exchange for my honest review; all opinions are my own.
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Meaneor Bodycon Dress
Let me first say that, as a mom of five with the figure to match, I'm not normally a big fan of bodycon style dresses for myself. I'm 5'10 and usually wear a size 16, so I don't have the body type that typically looks good in a bodycon dress. But... +
Let me first say that, as a mom of five with the figure to match, I'm not normally a big fan of bodycon style dresses for myself. I'm 5'10 and usually wear a size 16, so I don't have the body type that typically looks good in a bodycon dress. But when I saw this one, I loved the design so much that I really wanted to try it anyway, and I'm glad I did! I ordered this dress in a size XXL (and in black in hopes of that magical slimming effect), and it fit wonderfully.
This dress IS quite form-fitting, as you'd expect with a dress of this type. However, the material is very stretchy (almost like a spandex blend), but doesn't have that shiny appearance you'd expect. The material is also quite thick so it stays a very dark matte black even at the stretchiest points, without any weird lines or see-through issues. The material is also very soft – it doesn’t dig in uncomfortably when you move around or sit down. As a tall girl, I was worried about the sleeves not being long enough; happily, they do in fact hit my wrists, which is unusual for me with long-sleeved tops. The length of the dress is pretty short on me (several inches above the knee), but not so short as to be obscene, and it wouldn't be as short on women of an average height.
The sequins that form the design aren't standard super-flashy sequins – they're shiny, but not to the point of being gaudy or too sparkly. They come across as classy instead of "LOOK AT ME!" And the pattern is designed to help camouflage flaws – like I mentioned, I'm a bigger girl; I also recently had a baby and haven't rediscovered my waist yet, but this dress helps to give some illusion of my former waistline with the "belt" design around the middle. (And also, the pattern and subtle shine are both very eye-catching, drawing attention away from my problem areas!) The design is on the front half of the dress only; the back is solid black. I'm not certain how the sequins are attached, as they don't poke through the back of the material (some sort of glue, I assume) – so far they've stayed put perfectly (after wearing the dress for several hours at a normal level of activity and then hand washing and drying). I'm also impressed that the zipper, which runs all the way from the lower back up, doesn't gap oddly around the waist as so many dresses (or even skirts) with longer zippers are prone to do. Also, you can't even tell that there's a zipper once it's zipped up - it looks just like the rest of the seam and lies very flat. Since I didn't have a helper to zip the dress for me, I tried putting it on with the zipper mostly zipped (over the head like a T-shirt) – it was a little bit awkward getting into it, but thanks to the stretchiness of the material, it was an achievable goal.
I chose to hand wash the dress and then hang it to dry – I did toss it in the dryer on the air (no heat) setting for a few minutes with a dryer sheet just to make it a little bit softer and make sure there would be no wrinkles. It can't be ironed, but the material really doesn't wrinkle anyway, even if it's left sort of haphazardly draped over a laundry basket.
Overall, this is a great dress, both comfortable and flattering even for fuller-figured women.
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