It's Competition Day!!

Today is the day!

Today is the day that our dancers have been working so hard for all year long! 

It is competition season, their first away competition and they are ready to rock the house!! I, and many other parents, have been busting out tails, offering makeup sessions, creating costumes, and props so that our girls look amazing!

Now before you go thinking I'm Abby Lee Miller or something I will tell you that I am nothing but. In fact, I much prefer to yell and scream for all the kids performing and if it were up to me everyone would get first place! I love dance, I love it's art form and how different each dancer looks when performing.  But most of all I love the little dancers faces showing how much the LOVE being out there!

So today is the day!  It is long and tiring but oh so fun!  Good luck to all the dancers performing out there today, but I am offering a very special shout out to Shining Stars School of Performing Arts, EIGHT COUNT DANCE TEAM!

#EIGHTCOUNTPRIDE!!

[Laser] Tag! You're It!

As most of you remember, it was Bird's 8th birthday on the 17th.  This past weekend we had her party with her friends.  She decided to do a Laser Tag party at the local Shadowland.  She has never done laser tag and has been dying to try it out and her birthday was the perfect time to go!

The only problem is how the heck was I going to manage to do a Laser Tag Party theme for a girl?!?  Everything under the sun seemed to be geared towards boys!  I finally decided to just figure out the cards for now and then work my way figuring out ideas!

I searched Vista Print and found these awesome invitations! Even better, they were purple, pink, & blue!  Very Girly!!

Even better, they had a matching envelope and thank you cards, AND these cool stickers

Once I had these, I new what the party favors were going to be: Pink, Purple, & Blue!  Amazon.com is the best site to find hundreds of random items, let me just tell you!

I found the purple gable boxes, pink & blue swirl pops, the cupcake liners & stand, the fun shutter glasses, & the glow in the dark bracelets and rings. 

The idea was to use the glow in the dark items b/c they were playing in the dark & then add the cool glasses for fun & use the pink, purple, and blue theme!

I decided to add an individualized cupcake for each one of the party boxes using the cupcake liners and a plastic party bag. (Last year, they each got a giant cookie).  These types of favor boxes seem to be a bigger hit than all those crap filled ones I used to do. Plus, they are easier to put together!

In my opinion, cupcakes are so much easier than cake for birthday parties.  This is the second year, I decided to make our own cupcakes instead of buying a store bought cake.  Bird requested Red Velvet, so of course I obliged, and then made chocolate and yellow cake as well.  Since it's hard to do a "theme" with cupcakes I just dyed the frosting (cream cheese for the red velvet and vanilla for the others).  

All-in-all it was a success and the kids loved every moment of it!  Bird had a blast (even though she was quite scared at first)!

Fashion Friday - OOTD Kid's Wear

I want to welcome my very special guest to this weeks Fashion Friday linkup!  It is my daughter and she couldn't wait to be featured in one of my posts!

For her birthday (which was last week in case you missed it I talk about it here) I agreed to let her take over Fashion Friday's post this week.  She decided that she would do an Outfit of the Day post! =)

Hi  everyone I am Kaileigh and im 8. fashion is not hard just use everything with SPARKLES GET IT now that is good advice ok if u follow my rules someone might say i love your outfit so do what i told u. i say we do it!!!!!!!!!

Shirt - Total Girl (isn't this awesome?! the suspenders are attached!)

Skirt - Monster High Dress-up (from Walmart)

Jeggings - No Boundries (from Walmart)

Shoes - Hot Cakes

Glasses - Attitude Glasses (from Claires)

Hair - Hot Buns, Large edition

I told you she was a fashionista in the making. Her entire outfit was her pick.

Link up your Fashion post & leave an encouraging comment for her! =)

The Most Special Day of the Year

Good morning revolutioniers! There is no Sunday Spotlight today because today is the Most Special Day of the Year. February 17th comes once a year and every year it is bittersweet for me!

I rarely give you guys a complete insight of my personal life because I don't always like talking about it.  But today, I will offer you all a little history of my life.

This is Kaileigh (pronounce Khi-lee) a.k.a. Bird

Today is her Birthday.

Dancing w/the Redskinettes!

A Fashionista at a young age!

Eight years ago, I gave birth to this amazingly sweet and special little girl, but while she was healthy, something happened where I was not.  I am lucky to be alive today.  After 13 hours of labor Bird was delivered by C-Section and shortly after, I began fighting for my life.  No one truly knows what happened that day and why I began hemorrhaging but after 5 1/2 hours of surgery, 3 blood transfusions, 3 platelet transfusions, and having to be revived twice; at 20 years old I would no longer be able to bear another child of my own.

I am lucky.

I am lucky to be alive.
I am lucky to have a healthy little girl.
I am lucky that my little girl is truly my best friend.
I am lucky to have inherited another daughter.
I am lucky to have found a man (after my divorce) to love and care for my daughter as his own.

It has been eight years since this tragedy in my life.  Eight years and I still don't talk about it much.  Eight years and I still am angry, sad, and grateful at the same time.

I'm not sure how much longer it will take for me to accept that this has happened to me but I do know that although this was not the path I would have chosen, God has truly blessed me with the most amazing gift that is far greater than anything else I could have asked him for.

If me being able to have another child means I would have to give up the one child I have now, I'd rather be who I am now.  No gift will ever be greater than my Bird.

Happy Birthday my darling. Be awesome, be proud, be beautiful inside, and most of all be you. Fly high!

February is Here & a GIVEAWAY!!!

Hi All!! So, officially, welcome to February! The month of reds, pinks, hearts & flowers!!  I am finally getting back in to the swing of blogging again, [obviously since I have been positing a lot more than I have the past few months] and I am happy to announce that while I am not 100% better I am find ways around this disease!

This month is set to be really crazy at home b/c it is the month before dance competitions start for Bird &&& Fashion Week is arriving shortly &&& it is Bird's 8th Birthday *tear*!  So this month expect to see a lot of fashion posts, some coverage on prep for the competitions, and a special post for Bird's big day [and perhaps a guest post from the little fashionista herself]!

A couple of days ago I announced on twitter that if I finally meet the 200 follower threshold I would perhaps do a giveaway! Well, I finally did & you know what??? I am going to do it! I am going to do a giveaway!

Here is what you can win:

Stila Rockin' in Rio Palette

Stila Eyeshadow Set in Santa Monica Blvd

THE GIVEAWAY WILL RUN FROM NOW (FEBRUARY 2ND, 2013) TO FEBRUARY 9TH, 2013 (11:59 PM)

Here are the Rules:

1. You MUST follow my blog - Click the Join this site "GFC" Friend Connect button under FOLLOWERS
2. You MUST be a follower on TWITTER - CLICK HERE IF YOU NEED TO FOLLOW
3. You MUST comment below this post - It can be anything from makeup tutorials you would like to see, to fashion posts you want to see, what you have planned for February, your favorite post from January (pretty much anything but, negative posts). Make sure you include your email address or twitter handle in the comment section (that way I can contact you).  Comment as much as you want for more chances to win!
4. That's it!  Pretty easy right?!?

The contest is open to an U.S. residents (sorry no international peeps this time).  If you are under 18 you must have your parents permission to enter the contest.  Winner will be chosen at random and contacted via email.  The chosen winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize. If the winner does not respond a second winner will be chosen at random.

If you want to follow me every where else why your at it you can too!  Good LUCK!!

Instagram: QueenNicole01
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Facebook: Nicole's Revolution
Pinterest: QueenNicole01
Polyvore: QueenNicole01

High Five For Friday!

Yay! It's Friday! Would you believe I seriously have something to do every stinkin' day of the week?  How the heck did this happen??  I went from being busy b/c of school to being even more busy now that I am done! PHEW!  Oh Well!?!

1.  Seeing my little beauty perform poms for the first time....EVER!  So fun and exciting. {Apparently this weekend she is front row, center, doing an extension all by herself!  *This proud mama has a HUGE smile on her face as she types this!*}

2. My closets' new best friend!

3. This face loves me so much...even if I don't have as much time to run with him right now.

4. Realizing that I can now download my magazine subscriptions to my tablet!  {P.S. this is totally a new feature they added for current paper subscribers...and I am not late jumping on the bandwagon...just sayin' haha!}

5. The simple fact that it IS Friday. (It has been one hell of a week at work!)

How was your week?

High Five For Friday!

Yay! We made it to Friday!! Linkin' up w/Lauren {From My Grey Desk} again for another H54F!!  This week truly has been a blessing and I am SO glad it is the weekend!!

1. Do you see how damn hot it was Saturday @ almost 5 PM?  Yes, we were definitely over the 100 degree mark. I believe meterologist clocked {is this correct terminology?} us at 105 degrees at one point.  Ridiculous right?!

2. I had a blast bowling with Bird & my husband!  Birdy won....[*like legit won*]!  I totally choked at the end! I totally had them the entire game!!  I am devastated by this & I have already demanded a rematch!

3. I got to see my man play softball for the first time...EVER! He plays on an adult league with my baby brother.  They take it very serious...like with beer and everything!

4. Yes! The Dollar Tree has opened up in my hometown (the next town over from where I live) & this is very exciting!!!  I guess only small town people understand the huge excitement of this!

5. I received a new twitter follower this week. I always checkout my new followers...this one in particular (@joshingstern) was an author. So I downloaded his book and so far I love it!  It is rude, crude, and a true story!  If you are sensitive to offensive language than this book may not be for you but I love his sense of humor and sarcastic personality...definitely my kind of people; especially since the make your life SO much more funny!  

How was your week??? I wanna know!! Don't forget to check out the other links found in the link up too!  It's fun!

P.S. are you following me on twitter???? You totally should!  ;)

Tutorial Tuesday - KICKOFF!

Last week I gave you a little sneak peek in to what the first [of many] Tutorial Tuesday's was going to be and now here it is the finished product!

Yes, I totally turned this Stanley Mobile Work Center that I bought from Home Depot for $30 bucks in to a rolling train (make-up) case.  Here's the quick back story: my daughter is a competitive dancer (sort of like the t.v. series Dance Moms but without the horrid drama...yeah we're cool like that) I became sick of carrying all my daughter's and my make-up and hair items with me every where.  I have wanted a rolling train case for myself for a while but I just can't see spending on the upwards of $150 for it.....so ridic!  Anyway, this thing has made my life so much easier, but it was totally ugly to bring with me everywhere.  So, the stickers came off and new ones went on.  It was super* easy and here is how I did it:

*Disclaimer: the one sticker [see the picture of before I primed it] was a pain in the ass....next one I do, I am going to find an easier way to take this stupid thing off.  Thank you Stanley for making it almost impossible to take your trademark off.  

The top and bottom are connected by latches and if you remember there was a decal on the bottom half of the product that needed to be removed.  If you forgot what it looked like see my post about it here.  Using a blow dryer, tweezers, and a scraper, I removed the decal.  WARNING: this takes a long time FOREVER!!!!!  Once I removed the entire sticker this is what I was left with.

Before Priming

Yuck!  So I then got an abrasive sponge and Goo Gone and started scrubbing away until I got it to look like this.

Much, much better!  I also needed to try to figure out how I was going to paint on plastic and then it occurred to me...they make plastic primer paint!  So I armed myself with painters tape, newspaper, and some plastic primer (I used Rust-Oleum).  Since the primer came in a spray can I felt the need to really cover the whole thing.

Not sure why I am missing paper on the left side but I assure you I added some!

I then sprayed the whole section with a light coat of primer.  Just enough to cover it....you do not want to over do it!

While that dried (it took about 30 minutes), I worked on the decorations to the upper half.  Now please keep in mind that this is for my daughter and although I was the handywoman she ultimately got to have the final say on what goes (I helped steer her in to a better direction).

I found a lot of "bling" like stickers that she loved from the craft store and Wal-Mart and placed them on different areas.  I also found these awesome mirror letters!  They were $.99 at Michaels! 

But the faded in with the black coloring of the case. So I used good ol' puffy paint in hot pink & neon green and outlined them.

You can really see your reflection in them! Isn't it COOL!

By the time I finished all the decorating of the upper half of the work center, the lower half was done.  I used stencils and a hot pink acrylic paint to write out my daughters nickname "Bird."  It took about four coats, but I think that is b/c it was a glow in the dark paint.

I let that dry and then outlined it again with the neon green puffy paint and I was pretty much done. Birdy made some final touches with sparkling stars.  

Here's what it looks like on the inside:

1. Turn-out tray for all hair accessories
2. Mini compartment to hold things like primer and face stuff
3. Pull out tray to hold eye shadows, liners, mascaras, and other face make-up
4. This is what it looks like when it's closed
5. Underneath houses palettes and other items

I'm an idiot and forgot to take a pic of the lower half but that houses all her sponge rollers, blow dryer, and other hair tools.  BTW, not all of the items are my daughters, I have kind of taken it over b/c it is SO COOL! I believe I will be buying the bigger version of this and doing one just for me.  Had I really put some more thought in it, I would have also attached the mirrored letters to the inside!


What do you guys think of the first Tutorial Tuesday?  How about a $30 rolling train case? AWESOME right!?  What else would you like to see?  Leave me comments or send me an email!