A giveaway for a good cause! [closed]

Today I have a very special giveaway! Kelsea from Pink Wonderland is offering a $40 gift card to her etsy shop, to help raise awareness for a good cause. I'll let Kelsea take it from here:

"Hi! I'm Kelsea, the blogger over at Pink Wonderland, and I'm excited to be doing this giveaway on Kate's blog today. I'm currently running an event called Help a Heart over on my blog, which means a lot to me. See, my little brother, Corbin, had open heart surgery to fix a hole in his heart when he was just 13 months old and he currently suffers from heart disease. In order to help people like Corbin, I'm donating 100% of the revenue from my Etsy shops to the American Heart Association from now until October 19, the day before I participate in the annual Heart Walk. As a little added incentive for you, I'm offering a rare 25% discount to my Etsy shop! I'll be adding new things over the next few weeks so add my facebook page to keep up! 

 I really hope you can participate! Even if you don't have any money to donate or make purchases, you can help by spreading the word. Check out my Help a Heart page for more details. And in the meantime, enjoy this opportunity to win a gift card to my shop! Thanks for hosting and sharing my event with your readers, Kate."



What you'll win: $40 credit to Kelsea's etsy shop!

How to enter: To enter leave a comment with some way to contact you (twitter, e-mail, your blog.. whatever floats your boat!) Also, you must be a follower of this blog to enter! This is mandatory, too! (And, please, none of this follow-and-leave as soon as the giveaway is over jazz.. that's super rude!)

For additional entries: (leave a separate comment for each entry)
1. Tweet this* "I just entered a giveaway for a good cause on @kategabrielle's blog http://www.scathingly-brilliant.blogspot.com" (Only counts if you use that exact tweet.)
2. Tweet this* "Let's help a fellow blogger raise money for a good cause! http://www.pinkwonderland.com/p/help-heart.html"
3. Pin the giveaway on pinterest
4. Buy something from Kelsea's shop or make a donation, and then leave a comment letting us know that you did it.
5. Share the giveaway on facebook
6. Share Kelsea's donation page on facbeook

This giveaway ends on October 17th at 12:01AM EST. Giveaway is over.

*Your entry will only count if you have an active twitter account. If your account is used solely for entering giveaways, all of your entries in this giveaway will be disqualified. The goal here is to help Kelsea spread the word, so please do not take advantage.

Winner: Comment #31

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rain rain go away!

The weather has been rather dreary lately... something that seriously hinders things when you take photos of your outfits every day lol ;p I wore this last Thursday to see Lawrence of Arabia at the movies with my parents. I usually wear dresses every day but for a four hour long movie, I thought something where I didn't have to monitor my sitting position constantly would be more suitable!

I love Lawrence of Arabia, and seeing it on the big screen was absolutely amazing. (Also, can we talk about Peter O'Toole's face? ♥!!) Since they re-released this David Lean epic for its 50th anniversary, I'm hoping and wishing that they'll do the same for Dr. Zhivago in 2015. That's one of my favorite films of all time... I have goosebumps just typing about the IDEA of seeing it at the movies! :)

Anyway, the other bad thing about all this rain is that it's delaying that super huge exciting project I've been talking about. I have pretty much everything ready to go except for photos (so now you know that whatever it is, it involves photos lol) Hopefully the weather will finally cooperate this week and I can spill the beans super soon!!! eep! :D

Sweater- h&m | Shorts - emerging thoughts | Bag - modcloth | Shoes - target

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stop, rewind

I posted this outfit a little while ago with a whole big thing about being overwhelmed, trying to keep up, not answering my emails quickly enough as usual, etc. But honestly whenever I have a "life is sort of crushing me right now" post up, I hate myself for it. It's true that I'm knee-deep in work and errands (and those unanswered emails!) but I also went to the movies with my family last night and had an amazing time. I also have two super exciting projects I'm working on and a Disney trip coming up in 39 days! There's a lot for me to be excited and happy about, and I'd much rather concentrate on that.

Basically I think it comes down to this: I have a natural predisposition towards being cynical. You probably wouldn't get that from this blog, and that's because I make a strong effort to be positive (not just here, but in real life.) Sometimes it's tough, it's like I have some kind of "Debbie Downer" gene (considering the fact that I have a few family members with chronically sour dispositions, I think that's got to be a real thing) and I have to wage an active battle against it. So when I made a conscious decision to post about feeling overwhelmed instead of blogging about the fantastic night I had with my family yesterday, I let myself down.

There is a silver lining to being overwhelmed. Lots of emails to answer means I have a lot of great opportunities awaiting me and friends to correspond with. Being backed up with my laundry means I'm fortunate enough to have clothes to wear. Having too many orders to pack or too many convos to answer means my etsy shop is doing well. I could easily complain (as I did earlier) about being swamped, but I should really be grateful for the work on my plate. And I am, I just need to remind myself of that sometimes :)

Dress - c/o modcloth | Cardigan - old navy | Tights - asos | Shoes - uo | Pin - vintage

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un deux trois // wardrobe remix

remixed item: red scalloped collar dress from modcloth
outfit 1:  white belt - old navy // red belt - f21 // shoes - modcloth
outfit 2: skirt - h&m // white belt - f21 // shoes - c/o blowfish
outfit 3: belt - from another dress // shoes - urbanog

It's been a while since I did a remix post! I actually have a whole stash of ones ready to go and I just keep forgetting to post them. This is one of my favorites, since I love this dress to pieces! It's got the most adorable little scalloped collar and I love the not-quite-short-not-quite-3/4-length sleeves.

I never actually posted the first photo here. It was sitting in my "unused outfits" folder for some reason. I did wear the dress one other time on the blog, but it was a super bad hair day and I don't really want to revisit that lol ;p My favorite of the three is definitely the last and most recent outfit, with the yellow. I'm a sucker for ketchup and mustard!

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polka dots and bows

This week has been kind of rough so far. Someone stole my debit card number and racked up almost $400 in charges, then we found out that someone hacked into the database at my brother's college and stole the social security numbers of a bunch of students, including his. Also Kyle's on a trip right now so I've been filling in for him around the house, doing the things he normally does. Yesterday I had to help my dad with some back-breaking lawn work (something that's totally not my territory) so today I feel like I was hit by a truck and I've got more bug bites than you can count. oof. Rough week, and it's only Wednesday!

Luckily we're planning on taking it easy tonight, ordering pizza and watching the first Presidential debate on tv. And I'm wearing polka-dots and bows, so things can't be that bad, right? ;)

Dress- c/o Dahlia | Shirt - Modcloth | Lady Tie - Flapper Girl

Socks - Target | Shoes - Modcloth

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not one, but two eyeliner tutorials!

When it comes to makeup, eyeliner is my favorite, hands down! I even wrote an ode to eyeliner on my blog a couple years ago. I put it on every single morning, even if I'm not leaving the house. It's like brushing my teeth or combing my hair -- it's a daily essential! It probably makes my desert island list... it's just that important to me.

So when Modcloth asked if I'd like to test out one of the cosmetics from The Balm line, I jumped at the chance to try the liquid eyeliner. The retro packaging is pretty awesome, but what's inside the tube is even better. The brush is super thin, which makes it a lot easier to create a precise cat-eye. And the color is a deep, dark matte black. This eyeliner fan is definitely impressed ;) To demonstrate the eyeliner in action I made up two eyeliner tutorials:



Classic cat eye

1. Start with a fresh eye. I usually use concealer under my eyes and on my eyelid, and then brush white eyeshadow on my eyelid. The black really pops against the white background, but it's still classic and subtle. 2. Starting in the middle build up the line to the thickness that you'd like. 3. Bring the line in to your inner eye. The line should get thinner as it gets closer to your nose. 4. Draw a line straight out from the corner of your eye. 5. Connect the line to form a small triangle. Fill in the triangle and voila! A classic cat eye!



Scalloped cat eye

1.Once again, start with a fresh eye. Since this is a more detailed design, you definitely want a really light base to start with or else the design won't be as visible. 2. Draw a very thin line along the base of your eyelid. 3. Carefully draw in your scallops. I started in the middle and then drew in the rest on either side. 4. Fill in the scallops. 5. Extend your cat eye like in steps 4-5 of the classic cat eye.


Eyeliner tips

1. If you don't have a very steady hand, try eating something with protein beforehand. I always do this when I'm painting or drawing, too.. basically whenever I need to draw a really precise line. A peanut butter sandwich always does the trick for me! :) It seems silly but it really works!

2. A Q-tip and makeup remover (or Pond's cold cream) are my BFFs. I have a pretty steady hand, but even I mess up now and then. And I can't even count how many times I've sneezed while my eyeliner is still wet and the black just goes everywhere! But rather than removing all of your hard work, a Q-tip helps to just get the spots that you messed up without having to start from scratch.

3. Practice makes perfect. I've been wearing a classic cat-eye on a daily basis since high school, so it usually takes me about one minute flat to do both eyes now. When I first started I used to mess up constantly and my eyes would always come out uneven. Even if you think that there's no way you could EVER apply precise eyeliner, give it a try! After some practice you'd be surprised how easy it becomes :)

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look what I made #7: apple picking dress!

I bought this fabric at JoAnn's last month intending to make it into a dress before my family's annual apple picking day. And then I completely forgot about it until literally the day before we went. So I did what any normal human being would do... I stayed up until 2am making the dress. Naturally.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, though, considering how quickly I put it together. I used a new pattern for the bodice (this one) and I love it! I've been using one where the front bodice was assembled from three separate pieces, but this one is one single piece with darts. It doesn't break up the pattern as much, so this is definitely the one I'm going to use for my galaxy-print dress, which is next on my sewing to-do-list! :D

Dress- handmade! | Sunglasses - uo | Shoes - urbanog | Cardigan - old navy

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