Aly's Blog

last night i had a dream that i'd be getting my package from BlackMilk Clothing.  i wake up today, check the mail and THERE IT IS! weird how that works out. 

so here's what i ordered!

Retro Gamer Swimsuit

this could possibly be my new favorite thing EVER! i don't swim much in one piece bathing suits, but i definitely am going to wear this as a shirt like with a cute little skirt over it, or some shorts. i absolutely love it!

Galaxy Blue Leggings

if you haven't been to their website yet, go check them out! they are definitely one of my new favorite finds :)

i've always been known to change my hair color a lot. since i grew my hair out, i've decided not to dye it anymore. instead, i use henna. henna is so much better for your hair, and it actually conditions long hair and adds volume. 

the brand i love is rainbow. and i buy persian red. 

it comes in a green powder form, so it's different than most typical hair dyes which are a liquid. you mix the green powder with either boiling water or tea. i use tea (either pomegranate or some other red tea) because using tea will strengthen the color.

once you mix up the powder and tea, it'll look a lot like mud. wearing rubber gloves, you then apply the mud to your hair, making sure to not get any on your face or ears because it'll stain!  a good suggestion is to put vaseline around your hairline and on the tops of your ears to prevent any staining. once your hair is covered, you put a plastic bag on your head and i like to use a blow dryer to keep heating it as it's drying (usually about 45 minutes - 2 hours, depending on the strength of the color you want)

when it's all finished, and rinsed out, you have silky, volumnous, colored hair! henna usually lasts a few weeks, but since it doesn't have the harsh chemicals of regular hair dye, you can re-apply as often as 2-3 weeks after first application.

the red changes depending on what kind of light you're in, but here's me in my bedroom! (obviously since i just applied red over my naturally dark brown, it's like a brownish red)

and then here's outside in bright sunlight.  all my highlights are natural, my bangs have begun to lighten because i'm outdoors more now that the weather is warm! so the red really took to them.

overall i love the look of henna! it's natural, easy to use, and is actually good for your hair! in another couple weeks i'll apply it again to keep the color strong (i like REALLY red hair!)

today is a wonderful day! it marks mine and my dad's 1 year of opening Schneider Photographic! we are so blessed to have had such a great year, and are incredibly thankful to everyone for the love and support!

here are a few photos of when we first moved into the studio:

crazy to see how far we've come now! 

and just to add more photos to this, here are a couple of my favorite product shots we've produced throughout the past year!!!

i cannot wait to see where 2012 and the years to come will take us! this is such a fun adventure and i am really lucky to have my dad who is such an amazing business partner, as well as an amazing dad! 

I have a slight obsession with Wonder Woman.  Always have since I was a kid. There are so many great Wonder Woman products out there, aside from the typical costume for Halloween.  Thought I'd share some of my favorites with you!

One of my favorite websites ThinkGeek has a t-shirt version of her costume

TopShop has some super cute boy short undies for those of you who would prefer your Wonder Woman that way.

If you prefer to carry around your Wonder Woman, check out this tote bag from Appeal Deals

80s Tees is a super awesome website that had these Wonder Woman shorts 

The site Retro Planet has a Wonder Woman coffee mug

And last but not least, (my favorite!!) Journeys is selling some amazing Wonder Woman Converse All Stars!  I may have to snatch a pair of these up…

It's official: Disney has declared this week the very first National Princess Week!  You can read the full article here.

"During this enchanting weeklong event, taking place April 22-28, children across the country are invited to celebrate the sparkle and wonder of every princess—real, aspiring or imagined."

What do you think about National Princess Week?  It makes me want to dress up as my favorite Princesses! (I have a very hard time choosing just one...but my 3 favorites are Snow White, Mulan, and Pocahontas!)

Which are your favorite Princesses?

i've had acne since i was 12 years old, and after 12+ years of dealing with it, i've become a lot more confident in showing what i look like before i apply makeup.  it used to be the biggest deal to me - showing my friends my real face, and letting boyfriends see me after a shower, or after swimming.

but now that makeup is so incredible and can help me so much, i thought i'd show you my morning routine!

granted my skin is actually worse right now than usual. being a female and dealing with monthly hormones, AND i currently have tonsillitis and was dealing with a fever ranging from 100-102 the entire night last night...let's just say i'm a little worse for the wear.

first off, here's me with a totally bare naked face.

the first thing i do is apply an oil-free moisturizer (Clean & Clear Dual Action Moisturizer) - but what I really like to do when my skin is this broken out is to combine my moisturizer with my concealer.  the concealer i'm using today is LycoGel Acne Control Camoflage.  it covers, recovers, treats, and protects acne. 

(depending on the severity of my acne on that day, i may skip using the LycoGel completely and go for a lighter coverage concealer. but for today, i really need that extra coverage, plus the protection and healing powers of the LycoGel!)

so i combine both of those on a sponge and start dabbing it on my face, just to get a light even coverage. the blemishes will still show through after this, because i don't apply really heavily. i HATE the heavy feelings of concealer so i use it sparingly.

then to cover the individual blemishes and my killer undereye circles from being sick and lack of sleep...i use Covergirl Clean Makeup and what's awesome about this product is it feels really cool and tingly on the skin and is very lightweight. it also smells like eucalyptus.

next i apply MAC Studio Fix powder with a brush (I really like the brushes from Bare Minerals) and i cover my entire face with the powder to set my foundation and concealer into place

next i put on blush.  i like really pink blushes since i am so pale. i am using MAC cosmetics Fafi blush (which i'm clearly running out of!)

now my eyebrows are VERY light. they've always been this way, so my next step after my blush is to fill in my eyebrows. eyebrow pencils always seem sticky and heavy to me, so i prefer to use an angled eyeliner brush from MAC (#263) and using dark brown eyeshadow.  the one i'm using is from a MAC holiday set called delights: 6 eye/warm and the brown is Embark.

eyebrows make all the difference! my last step is the eyes. i haven't been wearing as much eye makeup lately, so i use 3 things: an eyelash curler, mascara, and a tiny bit of black eyeliner. i only put the eyeliner on the very outside corner of my lashes and in an upwards motion (think cat eye)

so there you have it! i'm all finished! this entire routine takes me MAYBE 5 minutes if that.

the first 3 photos are from a restaurant mike took me to this weekend in cleveland called Pickle Bills. it was SUCH good seafood! it was right on the water, and the inside was so decorated with trinkets and christmas lights, i was in heaven! 

i have been noticing how much hair decorations are a trend lately, and i thought it would be fun to make a hair wrap for my ponytail!! all i used was embroidery thread, an old silver necklace that was broken, and a couple beads.  i wrapped the necklace around the thread and tied a knot at the end. i also hung 2 beads off the end of the wrap.  i'm really happy with how it turned out!

i had a pair of solid black vans that i rarely ever wore.  i decided i needed to bring them to life for springtime, so what better way then splattering them with neon paint?!  here's a step by step photo diary of how to do this!

before you start: make sure to wear old clothes! and it's best to do this barefoot since paint may splash onto your feet.  you are more washable than your clothes are! :) also you should do this outside! it gets very very messy.

you will need:

-old shoes

-masking tape

-newspaper

-neon acrylic paint

-paintbrushes or sticks

-small cup of water

-a large open space, preferrable outdoors

step 1: tape off any parts of the shoe you want to remain black (example: the rubber around the base, the vans tag, etc.)  

step 2: stuff the inside of the shoes with newspaper

step 3: get out your neon paint and paintbrushes - you'll need 1 paintbrush for each color of paint you use. and also, i used acrylic paint because it's permanent and won't wash off if it gets wet

step 4: place the shoes on newspaper and put in grass (or wherever you have decided to paint)  just make sure there is about 2-3 feet of space all around the newspaper and that nothing valuable is nearby (put away cell phones!!)

step 5: add a SMALL splash of water to the paint and use the end of the paintbrush to stir it up. the thicker the paint, the harder it is to splatter evenly. however, too much water will cause the paint to thin too much and the colors to be less bright.

step 6: splatter the paint using the END of the brush. you will never stick the actual brush part in the paint. it drizzles and splatters so much easier if you use the end of the brush, or even a stick, skewer, chopstick, anything like that.

you'll have to fling the paint pretty hard in different directions to get the swirl look rather than just little dots of paint. it takes practice but you'll get the hang of it!

when splatter painting, make sure to vary the colors as you layer. i picked pink to start, then kept switching up colors as i went along to create a nice layered look. 

step 7: take the tape off of the vans tag and the base of the shoes

step 8: let the shoes dry for at least 2 hours, or longer if you can. once completely dry, add neon shoelaces and you're finished! 

i think i will definitely wear these shoes a lot more often now! i've already received so many compliments from people, and the best part is nobody else will have the exact same ones! 

splatter painting with neon works great on all colors of shoes too, doesn't have to be black! if you have white, the colors stand out just as well.  have fun!

i really love the look of dip dyed hair.  i think it's a great alternative to dying all of your hair, since just in case you don't like it (or have to get rid of it for work, school, etc.) you can just cut the ends of your hair off -- if it's long enough!

i keep pinning hair photos to pinterest and wanted to share a couple of my favorites with you.  and then i also experimented in photoshop on my own hair to see what it would look like!

and here's me playing around:  i did NOT actually dye my hair!  however, i'd really like to. i would need to discuss it with my dad since some of our more corporate clients may not appreciate my "wild side" and i AM trying to show people i'm a mature, co-owner of a business so who knows if i'll ever do this.  love photoshop though :)