Apple's (as if there was any doubt) success!

I love Apple. No, like really love. And it's not just because they're products are sophisticated, sleek and stylish. It's also because they're quality products and I know when something goes wrong, which is hardly ever, I can count on Apple to fix it. They stand behind their products and I never have to think twice about the money I spend when buying a new laptop.

Here's my most recent story which happened last night, but by the time this posts it will have about 3-4 days ago (yes, I'm that ahead on publishing posts). Last night my battery charger for my MacBook stopped working. It worked and then it didn't. The light on it stopped going on. I was able to wiggle it and get it to work for the rest of the night, but this morning it was back to being dead. My MacBook is only about 6 months old, definitely still under warranty, so I made a Genius Bar appt. for this afternoon to take it down there.  

                                   

My appointment was for 3:30, but me not even making the connection that it's the Christmas shopping season AND I needed gas, didn't end up getting there till about 3:45-3:50. No problem though because a very nice associate quickly made me a new appointment for 4:00.  

4:00 came and my name was called immediately. I didn't have to wait until 4:05 or even 4:01. I sat at the bar explained what happened, they tried a couple things then promptly went out back, got me a new charger and I was on my way and back in my car by 4:15. 

Now that is service. 

And this is why I don't mind paying extra for a top quality laptop. This was the first time in my life of owning iBooks and MacBooks and iPods and iShuffles that I've ever had to stop at the Genius Bar for them to look at something. My computer never crashes and never gets viruses. My iPods always play and my iShuffles always shuffle. And when I did finally need help with something, they didn't ask me a bunch of silly questions, they just gave me what I need and sent me on my way. I love that. 

Yes, please.

I need me some Wolverine. 

Cuteness.

I found this online and I thought it was absolutely adorable, so much so that I had to make one, post it, add a permanent thumbnail link to it, and then write about it for you.

So, basically, go check this out. You can put in your own words, or give it a link to something, in this case I told it to use The California Transplant for words and ta-da! There it is. You can then customize the font, the layout, the amount of words, the color, and lots of other stuff to make it uniquely you.

And mine definitely is, uniquely me!

My thoughts on.... Sake Part Due.

So it's been a little over two weeks since I posted my original take on Sake and I know I promised an update after trying it out for a couple weeks. You can find my original post on Sake here if you want to brush up.

First, this is the bottle I bought. It's really kind of cute.

Excuse my bad cropping. It was on a black background and well, we all know how great my photo taking skills are, and I can promise you my photoshopping skills are definitely not any better. 

But, this bottle was $2.99 here in New Hampshire and after 2- almost 3 weeks, I still have half a bottle left. So you definitely get your money's worth from it. 

I'm obviously not drinking it though.  

But you can if you want. I don't judge. 

I use it in the morning and at night, pretty much anytime I wash my face. I put some on a cotton ball and run it over my face and that's it. I don't rinse it off as it's not sticky and has a fresh scent and it definitely picks up any dirt and other crap I may have missed. 

The first thing I noticed was that I had a sun spot under my left eye that faded out pretty quick when I first started using the Sake. I still notice it a little bit if I look really hard, but honestly, nobody else can. It really is barely there.

To test this out though I've begun putting Sake on my grandfather's sun/age spots on his forehead now. I know in my reading it said that Sake does indeed lighten spots of extra pigmentation, and while I did notice it on myself, I feel like I need to do an extra experiment if you will to prove this isn't just a fluke. And, I will say that I have begun to notice slight differences in his spots as well. I'll keep you posted. 

Also in my reading it said that Sake helps with moisturizing. Well, it doesn't. At all. Not even a little bit. My skin is definitely drier that it normally is, but for me this is a good thing as my skin tends to be on the oily side. I always use moisturizer anyway, but now with using Sake, I make sure I moisturize every time I put it on. 

Sake also helped BIG time with my pre-period breakouts as well. Usually it's pretty gnarly in my opinion and this time around there was hardly anything. I totally give the credit to the Sake for that one. I definitely don't have perfect skin, but I seem to be the only one who really notices my breakouts anyway, but I've definitely seen a pretty big breakout/pimple difference even not related to my period since using Sake. 

To sum it all up.. go buy this now. No, like, right now. Really. It's definitely one of the best kept secrets. Not only is it 10 times cheaper than the stuff in the beauty aisle, it's free from harsh chemicals and works amazing which is probably the best part. 

Plus, worse case scenario.. you can drink it and feel better!

My favorite place..

One of my favorite places in the whole house, besides my bed and the kitchen, is the shower.

If we had enough hot water to last, I could spend hours in the shower, just sitting on the bottom with the hot water rushing over me. As it is, we have enough to last about an hour, and I have no problem spending all that time using it up. 

You see, I have a mind that never shuts up. Never. It's always going, churning, thinking, over-analyzing, preparing, planning, organizing, understanding, solving, over-analyzing; and one of the few ways I've found that I can get it to quiet down is just by sitting in the bottom of then running shower. 

And it's really weird, because I can honestly feel a difference in the noise when I go from standing to sitting or sitting to standing. And the change in noise has nothing to do with the noise of the water rushing through the shower head or hitting the the tub, walls and shower curtain. The noise comes solely from my mind. Is that weird? Re-reading that I sound a little crazy. 

Truth be told, I kind of am. 

You're probably wondering why I don't just take a bath, but the truth is, that doesn't work. My head is still just as noisy in a bath as it is all the time, so I reserve those only when I feel like surrounding myself with bubbles or a body part needs a hot soak. 

Needless to say though, it's this shift in internal noise that has made the shower one of my favorite places. Because my mind is finally able to calm down a little, I in return can calm down a little. I'm able to unwind, to relax, to mellow for a bit. Sometimes I'll bring in a CD to listen to, but usually I don't. My head makes enough noise and I like to be able to enjoy the quiet when I can. It's not a big fancy thing, no candles or anything. Just the silence. 

My thoughts on.... e.l.f. eyeshadow palette

Over the past month of so I've fallen back in love with make-up. It's a love affair that died about 11 years ago, but has recently been rekindled. I love just playing. Mostly though it revolves around my eyes. There isn't too much I can do with my lips as they are either nude or pinkish- I'm not a fan of purple, blue, or even red lipsticks on myself. I do wear blush, but not too often, as I think with my eyeshadows it tends to be over the top and I come out looking like a clown.

Eyeshadows can be really expensive though. Especially when you're trying to find the perfect color, and the perfect color is really important to me. My make-up budget is pretty limited, so you won't find me on the Sephora website anytime soon; although I wish I had a couple hundred to just blow because I'm certain I could spend hours upon hours, from open till close in one of their stores. But mostly my make-up comes from the drugstore, up until recently, from Target (Post idea! I'll explain there), and other like stores. I'm not really a big Cover Girl fan, I'm not sure what it is, but their products just don't seem to apply to me. I love Maybelline (the only mascara I use), Loreal, and Revlon.

Anyway though, while at Target a couple weeks ago, I finally picked up the e.l.f. (eyes, lips, face) 100 color eyeshadow palette for only $10.00.

I debated it for a couple weeks. It's price was what really deterred me from it. There was no way that all those eyeshadows for only 10 bucks could be of good quality and it would surely be a waste of $10.00. But wasn't that what I was doing already buying other shadows that weren't the color I'd hoped they'd be? Surely I could chalk up $10.00 and if it sucks, it sucks, but if it doesn't suck, then I've saved myself a lot of moolah!

So, finally after a couple weeks of looking and looking I finally picked it up. And you know what? I. Love. It. Best 10 bucks I've spent in forever. These colors are highly pigmented and go on so silky smooth. They do tend to crease after 8-10 hours of wear, but so doesn't every other shadow I wear, so no biggie. But I do totally love them and it's definitely something worth picking up if you love eye shadows too. 

Here's a couple pictures I took from my camera phone, hence they're not the best quality, but you definitely get an idea of how pigmented they are. 

This is my clouds, sky and grass look by the way.

In summary, definitely by this if you love eyeshadows- either for yourself or someone else you know. They will love this Christmas gift! Or add it to your own Christmas list, I don't think you'll be disappointed!

(This review is not endorsed and I didn't receive any moolah. They are more than welcome though to send me free things to write about if they'd like though, hint, hint!)

Quality Time

One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is playing Wii with my mum.

She's really one of the coolest people I know, even if she does bug the crap outta me on occasion. I guess that's just what happens when you're an only child.

(I'd also like to draw your attention to two things in this picture.. first, why I call her little mommy and second, that yes, while we might be California Transplants, we still represent the purple and yellow (we were pretty excited by their championship win this past season.))


But, let me just say that there are few things I love more than hanging out in the living room playing Wii with her. It's during those times that I just feel so incredibly blessed to have the family I do and the opportunity to do such simple things like that with them.

It makes me almost glad I moved back in. Almost.